Times OnLine: Unconditional love for murderer father - by Cloe Rhodes

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The day before her father’s death from bladder cancer in 2006, Natalia Aggiano held his frail hand as she said her last goodbye. Tears streamed down both their faces as she told him how much she loved him. Nothing in the tenderness of their final exchange hinted at the fact that nine years earlier Bruno Aggiano had begun a life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife Elva – Natalia’s mother. The depth of Natalia’s grief was all the more extraordinary because even before he committed his crime, she had felt only hatred for her father. Ever since she could remember, her father – who had grown up in a strict Catholic family in the Italian town of Brindisi – had exerted his authority over his English wife, nine years younger than himself, and their four children with brute force. “I hated him and I told him that all the time,” says Natalia. “He fell apart when my mum finally found the strength to leave him after almost 30 years, but I didn’t feel any sympathy. I remember laughing at him and telling him he’d ruined all our lives and that I hoped he’d go to hell.”