Giovanna Reggiani walked out of a suburban railway station into a horror story.

She had been shopping in central Rome. On the lonely road that leads from the Tor di Quinto station, she fell into the hands of a frenzied attacker. She was robbed, sexually assaulted and then beaten with what a police spokesman called "unparalleled ferocity".

What befell the 47-year-old wife of a naval captain on Tuesday night not only left her unconscious and dying. It also changed the law of her country and sparked a continuing anti-foreigner outcry unmatched in Italy's recent history.