{"id":295886,"date":"2023-10-26T17:26:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T22:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=295886"},"modified":"2023-10-27T11:30:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:30:20","slug":"grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/","title":{"rendered":"Grosvenor Casino Worker Killed Colleague, Fianc\u00e9e with Sledgehammer"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Italian casino worker in the UK killed two of his compatriots during an acute schizophrenic episode because he believed they had put spells on him.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea
Andrea Cardinale, left, suffered from an acute schizophrenic episode when he murdered his friend Antonio Calabro, center, and his fianc\u00e9e, Francesca Di Dio, right. (Image: Casino.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andrea Cardinale, 22, attacked his \u201cbest friend,\u201d Antonio Calabro,<\/a> 26, and Calabro\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Francesca Di Dio, with a knife and sledgehammer just days before Christmas 2022.<\/p>\n

Cardinale and Calabro had met at dealer school in their native Sicily and traveled to the UK together to work at the Grosvenor Casino<\/a> in Stockton-on-Tees. They shared an apartment in Stockton, in the northeast of England.<\/p>\n

\n

The court heard Cardinale had been fired from the casino in September 2022 because of his poor work ethic and \u201codd behavior.\u201d After his arrest, medical experts determined he had been suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia for some time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By the time of the killings, his mental health had deteriorated, and his psychotic illness had become so acute that \u201chis culpability for the killing [was] minimal,\u201d Donald Grubin, Professor of Forensic Psychology at Newcastle University, testified.<\/p>\n

Scene of the Crime\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the early hours of December 21, Cardinale entered Calabro\u2019s bedroom and bludgeoned his friend with the sledgehammer before stabbing him to death.<\/p>\n

\n

Di Dio, who was visiting her fianc\u00e9 for Christmas, managed to escape and run upstairs before she was killed with the sledgehammer, according to prosecutors. Cardinale then visited a nearby gas station to buy diesel fuel and a cigarette lighter. He doused the property, but did not ignite it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The bodies were discovered by Cardinale\u2019s father, who had flown to the UK after becoming concerned about his son\u2019s behavior and was staying in a nearby hotel.<\/p>\n

The Sicilian did not speak English and was unsure about how to contact the police in England. Instead, he called Italian police, asking for help. Local police arrived shortly afterward. Cardinale was arrested that afternoon as he was spotted aimlessly walking the streets of Stockton.<\/p>\n

Investigators found he had searched the internet for \u201chow to remove the evil eye,\u201d \u201cvoodoo,\u201d and \u201chow to make a bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Need for Answers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cardinale denied murder but pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.<\/p>\n

The families are crying out for answers, and it\u2019s 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,\u201d<\/strong> defense lawyer Peter Makepeace said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judge Paul Watson KC sentenced Cardinale Wednesday to an indefinite hospital order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Italian casino worker in the UK killed two of his compatriots during an acute schizophrenic episode because he believed they had put spells on him. Andrea Cardinale, 22, attacked his \u201cbest friend,\u201d Antonio Calabro, 26, and Calabro\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Francesca Di Dio, with a knife and sledgehammer just days before Christmas 2022. Cardinale and Calabro […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":295888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,18],"tags":[88550,88551,88552,88553],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGrosvenor Casino Worker Killed Couple with Sledgehammer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Grosvenor Stockton dealer Andrea Cardinale killed Antonio Calabro and his fianc\u00e9e Francesca Di Dio, in acute schizophrenic episode.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grosvenor Casino Worker Killed Couple with Sledgehammer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Grosvenor Stockton dealer Andrea Cardinale killed Antonio Calabro and his fianc\u00e9e Francesca Di Dio, in acute schizophrenic episode.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T22:26:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T16:30:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/moider2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"441\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/\",\"name\":\"Grosvenor Casino Worker Killed Couple with Sledgehammer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/moider2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-26T22:26:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-27T16:30:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Grosvenor Stockton dealer Andrea Cardinale killed Antonio Calabro and his fianc\u00e9e Francesca Di Dio, in acute schizophrenic episode.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/grosvenor-casino-worker-killed-couple-with-sledgehammer\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/moider2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/moider2.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":441,\"caption\":\"Andrea Cardinale, left, killed his friend Antonio Calabro, center, and his fianc\u00e9e, Francesca Di Dio, right, shortly before Christmas 2022. 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