Trial begins into Italian stabbing that has cast grim spotlight on femicide

Filippo Turetta accused of killing university student Giulia Cecchettin in case that has ignited calls for cultural change

A major femicide trial has opened in Italy, after the brutal murder of a university student by her ex-boyfriend that triggered outrage and national soul-searching over the roots of male violence against women.

The stabbing in November of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, a biomedical engineering student at the University of Padua, cast a grim spotlight on femicide in Italy, where the vast majority of victims are killed at the hands of their current or former partners.