Italian women film themselves squeezing their breasts in protest after judge clears janitor of sexual charges for groping a schoolgirl for less than 10 seconds
- The 66-year-old janitor admitted groping in April 2022, but the court acquitted him of wrongdoing
- Judges in Rome ruled the brief sexual assault ‘was not a crime’
Italian women are sharing videos of themselves rubbing their breasts in protest at a judge’s decision that refused to punish a school janitor for groping a student because the act “lasted less than 10 seconds.”
The incident took place at a school in Rome in April 2022, when 66-year-old janitor Antonio Avola reached into the pants of a 17-year-old student, touched her buttocks and pulled her underwear.
After being reported to the police by the victim, Avola confessed to the act, claiming he had done it as ‘a joke’. Prosecutors had demanded that the elderly man receive a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for assault.
But this week, the judge acquitted Avola of all charges because groping under 10 seconds “is not a crime.”
In the wake of the shocking statement, Italian actor Paolo Camilli posted a video to his TikTok account of himself filming himself silently rubbing his chest for nearly 10 seconds.
His post sparked a wave of protest on social media, with the hashtags #10secondi (10 seconds) and #palpatabreve (groping briefly) used to share the outrage.
Italian women share videos of themselves rubbing their breasts in protest of a judge’s decision that refused to punish a school janitor for groping a student because the act ‘lasted less than 10 seconds’
Thousands joined the protest, with some videos re-shared by notable figures, including Chiara Ferragni, a famous Italian social media influencer with nearly 30 million followers.
The student, meanwhile, was furious with the court’s decision not to punish Avola.
“The judges ruled he was joking? Well, it wasn’t a joke to me,” the student told Italian publication Corriere della Sera.
“The janitor came from behind without saying anything. He put his hands in my pants and my underwear.
‘He touched my buttocks… This is not a joke to me. This is not how an old man should joke with a teenager.’
“That handful of seconds was more than enough for the janitor to let me feel his hands on me.
“I’m starting to think I was wrong to trust the institutions,” she said, referring to her decision to report the janitor to the school and the police.
It is not the first time that such a decision by Italian judges has sparked outrage in the country.
In the wake of the shocking statement, Italian actor Paolo Camilli posted a video to his TikTok account in which he filmed himself rubbing his chest in silence for nearly 10 seconds
In 2016, a 65-year-old Italian man accused of groping his female colleagues was found not guilty of sexual harassment because an Italian court ruled he was driven by an immature sense of humor.
The ruling was condemned in the country where about a third of women between the ages of 16 and 70 have been victims of some form of physical or sexual violence.
A younger co-worker accused the man of touching her sexually, while a second woman said he treated him like “a little girl… like he was lightly slapping my butt,” according to court documents.
The court in Palermo, Sicily, admitted that he had behaved exactly as the women said, but still decided to acquit him.