Young Italians have taken to social media in protest at the acquittal of a school caretaker who admitted to groping a female student after a judge rules the incident had not lasted long enough to be a crime.
Italian Instagram and TikTok has been taken over by the #10secondi hashtag in response to the case which saw 66-year-old Antonio Avola admit to grabbing a 17-year-old student at a Rome high school only to be let off charges of sexual assault.
Judges ruled that Avola’s action did “not constitute a crime” because the act lasted under ten seconds.
The school caretaker confessed to groping the student without consent when confronted over the incident which took place in April 2022.
Though he would tell the police that the groping had been a “joke”.
The girl described going up a staircase with classmates when she felt a hand grasp her buttocks and underwear.
According to her account, when she turned around in shock, the man allegedly told her: “You know, love, I was just joking.”
According to the judges, the incident “does not meet the criteria for a crime” since it lasted less than 10 seconds.
“Men don’t have the right to touch women’s bodies, not even for a second – let alone 5 or 10.”
According to reports, the student expressed concern that the judges’ decision will discourage girls and women from speaking up if they experience similar attacks, following the surprising ruling.
Recent data from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) indicated that 70 percent of Italian women who experienced harassment from 2016 to 2021 chose not to report the incidents.