WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT: Giuseppe Di Matteo, 12, was kidnapped by Giovanni Brusca’s Sicilian Mafia gang to stop his father Santino testifying against them

Young Giuseppe Di Matteo thought he was off to see his father when police officers came to pick him up one day in 1993.

Ex- Mafia associate Santino Di Matteo had recently turned his back on his criminal comrades and was under the protection of the authorities for his own safety.

However, his 12-year-old son became a casualty when Cosa Nostra criminals in Sicily, Italy posed as police officers and kidnapped him.

The horrifying plot was masterminded by hitman Giovanni Brusca and crime boss Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina. For nearly 800 days, the helpless lad endured unimaginable torment while held captive in a café.

He was beaten and starved by the criminals, who also sent photos of the boy to Santino as part of their sick mind games.

The initial aim was to stop the informant from giving evidence in the trial of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, who had been killed in a car bomb attack.

The esteemed judge had devoted his career to prosecuting organised crime, notably leading the notorious “maxi trial” in 1986, which led to the conviction of 342 mafiosi, according to the Mirror.

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Brusca was ordered to seek revenge and, in 1992, he placed half a tonne of explosives under a motorway near Palermo, targeting Falcone as his car drove past.

The judge died alongside his wife and three bodyguards, and Brusca was forced to go on the run immediately.

The later capture of Santino revealed Brusca – dubbed ‘The Pig’ – as the ringleader, sealing Giuseppe’s terrible fate.

In 1996 – 779 days following his kidnapping – Brusca gave the command to kill Giuseppe with five callous words: “Get rid of the puppy”.

The boy was so frail from his ordeal that he offered no resistance as he was throttled to death.

His remains were subsequently dissolved in acid to guarantee they would never be found – a technique called ‘lupara bianca’. Shockingly, Brusca showed no regret, later boasting in his autobiography about his ever more appalling crimes.

“I’ve dissolved bodies in acid; I’ve roasted corpses on big grills; I’ve buried the remains after digging graves with an earthmover,” he wrote.

“Some pentiti [former Mafiosi] say today they feel disgust for what they did. I can speak for myself: I’ve never been upset by these things.”

Brusca was later captured and jailed for 25 years after confessing his role in more than 100 killings.

His eventual freedom in 2021, then aged 64, triggered outrage throughout Italy that such a lethal murderer was now at liberty to roam the streets.

Tina Montinaro, whose bodyguard husband was murdered alongside Falcone, told the Repubblica at the time: “The state is against us – after 29 years we still don’t know the truth about the massacre and Giovanni Brusca, the man who destroyed my family, is free.”

Three years earlier in 2018, Giuseppe’s family received over €2.2m (£1.9m) as compensation for his murder. On the 25th anniversary of his son’s abduction, Santino stated in an interview: “I think about it every day.

“How can there be people so evil to treat a child this way? When people get involved in stuff like this, it’s most likely they are never coming back.”