Inter Milan star Lautaro Martinez has been convicted by a Milan court for 'unfair dismissal' after firing a babysitter who was suffering from a serious illness and later died, reports in Italy have revealed.
Italian outlet Fanpage report that the Labor section of the Court of Milan have ruled that the dismissal of a 27-year-old girl was 'illegitimate', and that the Inter captain will have to compensate the girl's family.
It is reported that the court was told Martinez had 'regularly hired' the girl to babysit his daughter, but she was hospitalised due to 'severe pain in the abdomen' eight months after the hiring.
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The report adds that her hospital stay continued 'indefinitely', and was dismissed by Martinez due to the fact 'she had exceeded the maximum limit foreseen for absences due to illness'.
The girl passed away several months later, it is said.
Calcio E Finanza add that the girl's lawyers immediately challenged her dismissal, with the player's lawyers rejecting previous attempts to settle the matter before the case ended up before the Labor Judge of the Court of Milan. The girl passed away during the lawsuit, which passed it on to her heirs.
The Court of Milan declared the dismissal 'illegitimate', with Martinez ordered to pay legal costs and the 'payment of a sum as compensation to the heirs of the young woman'.
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Martinez responded to the verdict with a post, in Spanish, on his official Instagram account. The post reads: "I decided to remain silent for a long time out of respect for a family that has never had it towards us. But I will not allow them to disgrace my family.
"We hired an already ill person, a friend of ours for a lifetime, until unfortunately she could no longer work because her illness did not allow her to.
"We did a lot for her and her family; we paid for the tickets for them to come here, we helped them find a place in the hospital which was full, we helped with treatment and to find accommodation for her family who we had to convince to come take care of their dying daughter.
"After giving them everything they waited until their daughter was dying and was not lucid to try to get money from us and take advantage of the situation. And even after her death they continued to insist and it went very badly for them.
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"Now after the sentence it comes out that we didn't want to take away even a single euro because it wasn't appropriate; we gave our help, great help to her when she needed it and now they bring this up to try and shame us?
"What kind of person do you have to be to exploit the death of a daughter to get money?"
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Featured Image Credit: Getty / Instagram/Lautaro MartinezTopics: Lautaro Martinez, Inter Milan, Serie A, Football