Thousands of people take part in a demonstration against violence against women in central Turin, Italy, March 5, 2017. ALESSANDRO DI MARCO v AP
A school guard who touched the buttocks of a 17-year-old student has been acquitted by a court in Rome. This court decision sparked outrage from student associations and influencers on Thursday, July 13. Because these touches lasted “between five and ten seconds,” the court said, they “do not constitute a criminal offense,” the victim denounced and the author acknowledged.
The “suddenness of the action, without any insistence on the action of touch”, which is “almost a touch”, does not allow “characterizing the libidinal or pleasurable intention generally required in criminal law”, estimated the court, quoted by the daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
The court therefore rejected the requests of the prosecutor, who had sought a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence against the 66-year-old guard, who admitted to having touched the student climbing the stairs, but did so “jokingly”.
“It’s not a joke” for the victim, she reacted to the Italian daily. “The guard grabbed me from behind without saying anything. Then he put his hands in my pants and under my underwear, touched my buttocks and then pulled me up until my privates hurt,” she said.
Social media support
This court decision triggered protests at the Lazio student association in the Rome region: “We are outraged by the reasoning behind the judgement. (…) Once again touches are not recognized as such, this time because of their duration,” protested its President Tullia Narciso, quoted by the daily Il Fatto quotidiano. “We want to feel safe everywhere, especially at school, which is designed to learn to recognize and eliminate violence and discrimination,” she concluded.
Following this controversial verdict, many students posted videos on social media filming themselves touching their bodies, simulating a touch for ten seconds that seemed to last forever.
This gesture of solidarity with the victim was also picked up by the Italian actor Paolo Camilli, known for his role in the series “The White Lotus”, whose video was shared by the peninsula’s most famous influencer, Chiara Ferragni.