Italians Are Sharing Videos Of Them Groping Themselves For 10 Seconds After A Teen’s Case Was Dismissed
A court dismissed a 17-year-old girl’s sexual harassment case because the janitor had only groped her for 10 seconds.
People in Italy are sharing videos of them groping themselves for 10 seconds after a judge dismissed a teen’s sexual assault case because it was “too short”.
In April 2022, a 17-year-old girl called Laura reported her school janitor for groping her.
Laura said had been walking up the stairs at school when she felt a hand going down her pants and touching her underwear and bottom.
She turned around to find that it was the janitor, 66-year-old Antonio Avola.
“Love, you know I was joking,” Avola reportedly said to Laura after the incident.
Avola admitted to all the allegations but said it was a joke.
Laura’s lawyer asked that Avola be sentenced for at least three and a half years for sexual harassment.
However, the judge on the case acquitted Avola on July 6 of sexual assault charges because the groping only lasted only “a handful of seconds”.
In the verdict, the judge added the janitor did not let his hands linger, adding that it had been a “clumsy manoeuvre, lacking lust”.
“That handful of seconds was enough for the janitor to make me feel her hands on me, as the judges recognized. So I wonder: if it had lasted longer, what would they have said? That I was consenting?” Laura said after the verdict, according to Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera.
Now, people in Italy are sharing in Laura’s anger and disbelief at the judge’s decision by taking to social media with videos showing how long 10 seconds can feel when one is being groped or sexually assaulted.
Posted with the hashtag #10secondi, the videos show people touching their own breasts or bottoms in front of a 10 second timer.
The video depicts how unbearably long being sexually assaulted for 10 second can be.
“How long is 10 seconds? Who decides that there are few? Who times them, while you’re harassed?” Italian influencer Francesco Cicconetti, whose video has gained more than 4.2 million views, wrote.
Laura said the judge’s decision may influence girls and women to not report sexual harassment.
Commenting on the verdict, she said that her only hope is that the prosecution files an appeal, or else she will “experience it as another betrayal.”
Around 70% of Italian women who experienced harassment between 2016 and 2022 did not report it, according to statistics.
