(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 28 - Filippo Turetta admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend Giulia Cecchettin in a statement he gave to a preliminary investigations judge at Verona prison on Tuesday, the young student's lawyer Giovanni Caruso said.
    Cecchettin's murder on November 11 has shocked Italy, in part because of the age of the victim and the alleged murderer, he 21 and she 22, and because of the brutality of the killing.
    It has also heightened the need to combat gender-based violence as it was only part of a long series of femicides in Italy.
    The woman's body was not found until a week after the homicide, confirming she was dead and had not gone missing after days of intense anxiety for her family.
    Turetta, who took flight after the killing and was arrested near Leipzig in Germany on November 19, made the confession in a "spontaneous statement" before the judge.
    He had already admitted the homicide when detained by German police, although those statements were unusable for the Italian trial.
    He also took German officers that he would have committed suicide but lacked the courage to do so.
    The Padua university biomedical engineering student wept during Tuesday's interrogation and otherwise used the right to remain silent when asked questions, sources said.
    The questioning took place at Verona's Montorio prison, where Turetta arrived on Saturday morning following his extradition from Germany.
    He is being held under 24-hour protection for his own safety and will have no contact with prisoners suspected or accused of other types of crimes.
    He is said to be "quiet" and has reportedly asked for books and to meet his parents after the interrogation.
    On Sunday he met with the prison chaplain.
    Turetta is currently being probed for kidnapping and aggravated voluntary homicide but this could change to premeditation in light of the results of the autopsy on December 1 and examination of the car used by the suspect in the alleged kidnapping and femicide.
    Cecchettin's body was found in a gorge between Lake Barcis and Piancavallo in the Friuli province of Pordenone.
    It has emerged that Cecchettin, who was Turetta and was due to graduate on November 14, wanted to cut all contact with Turetta but was afraid to do so because she believed he might do himself harm.
    "I feel I am in a situation where I would like him to disappear, I would like to have no more contact with him, but I don't know how to do it because I feel guilty, I'm too afraid that he might hurt himself somehow," said Cecchettin in a voice recording broadcast by Rai television.
    "He comes to tell me things like that he is super-depressed, that he has stopped eating, that he spends his days staring at the ceiling, that he thinks only about killing himself, that he would like to die," she added. (ANSA).