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Roma captain Francesco Totti is alleged to have paid Italian police to watch his son Cristian from 2008-10 after a kidnap threat, according to the minutes of an interrogation in the ongoing Mafia Capitale investigation, which got underway last Thursday. Luca Odevaine, a former deputy head of the mayor of Rome's cabinet, is being questioned over his role in the scandal which has placed 46 politicians, businessmen and others on trial in a corruption probe investigating Rome's City Hall. Prosecutors allege that Mafia-style intimidation was used to gain control of millions of dollars of city contracts in Rome, with public money used for kickbacks and payoffs. Odevaine's statement, which was reported by Italian newspaper Il Tempo, claims that Totti paid officers to protect his son from 2008-2010, with prosecutors seeking clarity from Odevaine over whether public money was used. "It's true that officers kept an eye on Totti's kids, but it happened outside of working hours and they were paid under the table by Francesco himself," he said. "It came as a result of rumours that there was a plan to kidnap Totti's son. One day [athletic trainer] Vito Scala talked to me and told me that a Roma Ultra, who had just left prison, was offering $50,000 to kidnap the child. "He asked me to verify the matter. I did so with Officer Luongo, the mayor of Roma [Gianni Alemanno at the time] and the head of police Cavaliere. "Luongo decided that it wasn't worth notifying the committee, so several officers who were nearing retirement would keep watch outside of working hours. "Totti paid them directly: he gave me money every month, and then I would tell them the hours they had to work." In Italy, requests for civil damages can be attached to a criminal trial. The consumer group Codacons, which requested permission to do so, said more than 100 people who worked as managers or staff in City Hall are "reputedly in cahoots or somehow linked to a Mafia-like system handling the contracts.'' The trial is expected to take months. Information from the Associated Press and Ben Gladwell was used in this report
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