Man bludgeoned closest friend and fiancee to death with sledgehammer after claiming they cursed him

Former casino worker killed Italian flatmates after psychotic episode

Francesca Di Dio and Antonino Calabro were killed days before Christmas last year (Cleveland Police)

A former casino worker killed a young Italian couple at the flat they all shared during a psychotic episode in which he thought they had put spells on him, a court has heard.

Andrea Cardinale attacked his “closest friend” Antonino Calabro and Mr Calabro’s fiancee Francesca Di Dio days before Christmas last year.

Teesside Crown Court heard Cardinale, 22, and Mr Calabro, 26, were friends from croupier school and travelled to the UK in 2019 to work at the Grosvenor Casino in Stockton-on-Tees.

Cardinale was dismissed from that role in September 2022 due to poor work ethic and “odd behaviour”, prosecutor Nick Dry said.

His mental health deteriorated until the attack in the early hours of 21 December, which saw him go into Mr Calabro and Ms Di Dio’s bedroom and bludgeon Mr Calabro with a sledgehammer before stabbing him.

Ms Di Dio, 21, who was visiting for Christmas, was able to escape and run upstairs before being chased by Cardinale, who killed her with the sledgehammer, the court heard.

Andrea Cardinale, who has been given a hospital order for the manslaughter of Antonino Calabro and his fiance Francesca Di Dio (Cleveland Police/PA Wire)

Mr Dry said Cardinale then went to a petrol station to buy diesel and a lighter to blow up the flat. He doused the property in fuel but did not ignite it.

Both bodies were found in the flat in Thornaby by Cardinale’s father, who had travelled over to persuade his son to fly back with him to Sicily after the family became concerned about his mental health.

Cardinale was arrested that afternoon and later told police he killed his friends because he believed they “had been conjuring and putting curses on him”, Mr Dry said.

Police looked at his phone and found searches including dynamite and “how to make a bomb”. He had also searched on the internet for “voodoo” and “how to remove the evil eye”.

The defendant, of Thornaby Road, denied murder but pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

On Wednesday Judge Paul Watson KC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, sentenced Cardinale to an indefinite hospital order, saying that he had been suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia at the time.

The court heard three psychiatric experts agreed that the defendant’s “unrecognised psychosis” was the “substantial” reason for the killings, with Professor Donald Grubin saying the illness “was so acute that his culpability for the killing is minimal”.

Peter Makepeace KC, mitigating, said: “The families are crying out for answers and it’s entirely understandable. The answer in this case appears to lie in a devastating and acute illness which has led to him being responsible, albeit in a diminished form, for the death of his closest friend.”

A statement from Ms Di Dio’s mother, Anna Nosi, read in court, said: “The death of my daughter overturned and destroyed my life, that of my daughter Veronica and my ex-husband, Giuseppe.

“Since her death we can no longer find inner peace or comprehend what happened. We no longer sleep at night because our thoughts are all about our daughter.

“I often go to the cemetery and talk to my daughter looking at the small picture on the tombstone hoping for her to answer.

“We are completely exhausted, our every thought is of our beloved Francesca who is sorely missed and whose presence will never be filled and replaced by anyone.”

Mr Calabro’s father, Salvatore Calabro, said in a statement: “For parents, a child is an extension of life, for a sister, a shoulder to lean on and a person to ask for help, but unfortunately this has been denied us.

“Not having Nino with us anymore, after having cuddled, helped and supported him for 26 years is not easy to overcome, but with a lot of willpower and with the help of our Lord we have to face the future as serenely as possible.”