An Italian court has sparked outrage after ruling that a cleaner molested a schoolgirl for “only a few seconds”.
The girl, who was 17 at the time of the incident, said the man approached her from behind, put his hands in her panties and gently lifted her into the air as she pulled up her pants after walking up the stairs with a friend.
In their ruling, the jury said “the entire incident lasted about five to ten seconds” and that there was no “lewd or lewd intent”.
The 66-year-old said he put his hand in the back of the girl’s pants “just for fun” at the school near Rome’s Ostiáns.
He then begged the girl to let it go, telling her: “You’re ruining my life, I didn’t do anything to you.”
In its ruling on July 6, the panel of judges concluded that the inappropriate move was so brief that it left “sufficient doubts” about whether it was voluntary and considered it a joke Argument “convincing”.
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The girl’s lawyer, Andrea Buitoni, told the Fanpage news site that the decision would “certainly” be appealed.
“It’s not the way an old man jokes about a 17-year-old girl. At least I think so,” the girl, who had just turned 18, was quoted by Corriere della Sera as saying.
The verdict sparked online protests, with thousands of social media users posting videos of themselves touching intimate body parts with the hashtags #10seconds and #quickgrope.
Actor and comedian Paolo Camilli, star of “The White Lotus,” was among those involved in the online campaign.
He posted a 10-second TikTok video of him stroking his own breast, saying: “If this isn’t harassment, what is?”