A court decision in Italy that found a school janitor not guilty of touching a student because the act lasted less than 10 seconds aroused outcry.
According to Italian state broadcaster RAI, the judges of the Court of Rome's fifth criminal section acquitted the 66-year-old man accused of sexual assault because the entire incident lasted "about five to ten seconds."
According to RAI, the then-17-year-old girl testified that the act occurred in April 2022 as she climbed the stairway at school with a companion.
According to the July 6 verdict, she testified that she pulled up her trousers and felt a hand tucked inside them, under her underwear, stroking her buttocks.
"Love, you know I was joking," the janitor added, according to the teen's evidence included in the decision.
During the trial, the janitor agreed to touch the pupil but said it was "as a joke."The judges agreed with the defence that the act was a "clumsy joke" with no "libidinous intent" toward the girl.
The decision generated uproar among students and a viral social media trend. The 'Rete degli Studenti Medi del Lazio,' a local organization representing high school students, stated on Facebook that "this is not a joke,there is nothing funny about it.”
"It is intolerable that we do not feel safe at school." The patriarchal system has triumphed once more with the tacit assistance of institutions and politics. "We will always be on the other side of the fence, for a safe society based on respect," they stated on Tuesday.
Italians have taken to Instagram and TikTok to broadcast videos of themselves stroking a sensitive region of their body for 10 seconds, timed, to demonstrate that a rather long period can make people uncomfortable and change a person's life.
