Italians outraged after judge clears man of groping teen because contact was under 10 seconds
Italians are using social media to denounce a court verdict clearing a school janitor of a sexual assault charge for groping a 17-year-old student because it only lasted “around five/10 seconds.”
ROME (AP) — Italians are using social media to denounce a court verdict clearing a school janitor of a sexual assault charge for groping a 17-year-old student because it only lasted “around five/10 seconds.”
The teenager said the man came up from behind her as she was pulling up her trousers while walking up the stairs in a Rome high school, and slipped his hand beneath her underpants, according to court documents. Pulling on the undergarments, he then lifted her slightly in the air. He admitted to groping her in the April 2022 incident but claimed it was a joke.
A court in Rome ruled last week that the groping was ‘just a few seconds” and wasn’t sexual, and that it was so brief that his argument that it was a joke was convincing even if “inopportune.”
Actor and comedian Paolo Camilli, who appears in The White Lotus, posted a video on TikTok this week fondling his chest in front of the camera as a chronometer counts down 10 seconds. “If this is not molestation, I don’t know what is,’’ he said.
