Italians grope themselves in protest of judge's 'ten second' rule on assault case

Some Italians are sharing videos that show them ‘groping’ themselves, or being groped by a partner. Often accompanied on screen with a timer, that counts down from ten seconds.

Why? It’s all in relation to a court case in Rome where a 66-year-old school caretaker was just acquitted by a judge for sexually assaulting a teenage student.

The relevance of the timer goes back to ruling made by a judge in this case, that because the “groping” lasted less than ten seconds and was brief – it wasn’t enough to constitute as assault.

Famous Italian White Lotus actor Paolo Camilli was one of the first to share a video challenging this ruling.

This has angered Italian men and women, leading social media users to share unsettling videos, showing exactly what ten seconds of groping looks like, often tagged with the hashtags #10secondi or “palpata breve” — Italian for “a brief groping”.

Back in April 2022, the 17-year-old girl reported the caretaker to police after he’d snuck up behind her and “put his hands down my trousers and inside my underwear” she told Italian publication Corriere della Sera.

In court this week, Roman public prosecutors asked for a nearly four-year prison sentence and a sexual assault conviction, but a judge disagreed with the charges ruling 66-year-old Antonio Avola innocent.

Caretaker Avola admitted to groping the student without her consent, but persisted “it was a joke”.

Unsurprisingly the victim didn’t find it to be a “joke” at all – stating: “He groped my bottom… For me, this is not a joke. This is not how an old man should ‘joke’ with a teenager.

“That handful of seconds was more than enough for the caretaker to make me feel his hands on me.”

She says this has left her with little trust in the justice system as well as her school, fearing this will just deter other women and girls from coming forward with reporting sexual assault.

Recent figures by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) suggest that 70% of Italian woman who had suffered harassment between 2016 and 2021 did not report the incident.