Outrage in Italy after cleaner escapes prosecution for groping schoolgirl ‘because it only lasted 10 seconds’
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Italians have reacted with outrage after a 66-year-old school cleaner escaped punishment for groping a female pupil because it “only lasted about ten seconds”.
The 17-year-old schoolgirl was walking up a flight of stairs between classes when the janitor, Antonio Avola, put his hand inside the waistband of her trousers and inside her underwear from behind. When she confronted him, he responded: “Come on darling, you know I’m only joking,” according to other students who witnessed the incident, which happened at a high school in Rome in April last year.
The school caretaker was charged with sexual assault and sent to trial. Prosecutors had called for a sentence of three and a half years in prison.
But a court in Rome ruled that his groping had “only lasted between five and 10 seconds” and that his hand had not “lingered” down her underpants for very long. He had not intended to seriously molest the teenager, the court said.
Putting his hand inside her trousers was “bumbling” but had not been a sign of “sexual desire”. His defence, that the whole thing was a playful joke, “appears convincing”, judges ruled, deciding to acquit Mr Avola of the sexual assault charge.
A social media campaign has sprung up in response, with people posting clips on TikTok and Instagram using the hashtag #10secondi
In her first comments on the case, the schoolgirl said on Wednesday: “For me it was no joke. A joke is something shared between two people. This is not the way that a janitor should joke around with a young girl of 17. I’m very angry. This is not justice. I feel betrayed twice over – first by the school, where it happened, and now by the court.” She said friends and teachers had expressed solidarity.
“Many people think it is shameful that the state does not recognise certain behaviour as violent acts.” The judgement will dissuade other young women from complaining about such treatment, she said.
In a front-page opinion piece on Wednesday, one Italian columnist wrote: “How putting a hand inside the underpants of a young girl for 10 seconds can be considered a joke, I still have not been able to comprehend. He said he was just messing around – and nothing happened to him.” The court’s ruling carried a stark message for the schoolgirl, the columnist wrote in La Stampa: “She should have had a better sense of humour.”
For many critics, the case reflects the casual sexism and objectification of young women that is still widespread in Italy.
