Feel yourself up for 10 full seconds.
No, seriously. Get out your stopwatch and grope yourself for a ten-count, and then imagine being told it isn’t a crime if a school janitor pulls down the pants of a 17-year-old student as she is walking up the stairs and grabs her butt for that length of time.
Because that is exactly what a judge in Italy ruled after exactly that happened to a 17-year-old at a Roman high school, and young, understandably outraged Italians are now flooding social media with protest videos of them touching themselves as clocks tick away the seconds.
@luce.news Il caso del bidello assolto dal tribunale di Roma dopo essere finito sotto processo con l’accusa di violenza sessuale per avere toccato una studentessa fa ancora discutere. Su Instagram l’attore Paolo Camilli ha simulato “la palpata breve”, ossia quel contatto fisico che dura meno di 10 secondi, dando vita a un vero e proprio trend social. Il bidello, infatti, non è stato considerato colpevole perché la “repentinità dell’azione”, durata tra i 5 e i 10 secondi, “senza alcuna insistenza nel toccamento”, non consente di “configurare l’intento libidinoso o di concupiscenza generalmente richiesto dalla norma penale”. “Se non è una molestia questa, boh. Ma soprattutto chi li conta? Ci sta Dobby l’elfo col cronometro ogni volta?”, ha commentato con rabbia mista a ironia Camilli. #lucenews #palpatabreve ♬ suono originale – Luce.news
According to the BBC, the victim of the male school caretaker “described walking up a staircase to class with a friend, when she felt her trousers fall down, a hand touching her buttocks and grabbing her underwear.”
When she turned to face the toucher, the man reportedly replied, “Love, you know I was joking.”
The incident occurred in April 2022, and 66-year-old Antonio Avola was reported to the police. He confessed to groping the teen without her consent but claimed it was just a joke.
While the Roman prosecutor sought a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, the Italian judges ruled that, because the assault lasted less than 10 seconds, no crime was committed.
“White Lotus” actor Paolo Camilli posted a video of himself touching himself for 10 full seconds and sparked a slew of similar posts on Instagram and TikTok from Italy’s most famous influencers.
The hashtag “palpata breve” — Italian for a “brief groping” — soon began to trend.
@eveningstandard #Italians #celebrities, #influencers and users of #socialmedia have taken to TikTok to express their outrage after a caretaker was cleared by a #judge of groping a teenager at school because they said the incident did not last long enough. #10secondi #palpatabreve ♬ original sound – Evening Standard
The videos are now receiving international attention.
@jimini605 9초까지는 무죄? #10secondi ♬ 오리지널 사운드 – 블랙화이트
@tagesspiegel ♬ Originalton – Tagesspiegel
@womensequalityparty A judge in Italy just acquitted a man who *admitted* to groping a 17 year old girl in a high school in Rome of sexual assault charges, because the assault lasted less than #10Seconds. Unacceptable ahd disgusting. #italy #feminism #judge #discrimination #ridiculous ♬ News program, serious BGM of Nareback – Whistle Grandpa
“Who decides that 10 seconds is not a long time? Who times the seconds, while you’re being harassed?” asked Italian influencer Francesco Cicconetti, according to the BBC. “Men don’t have the right to touch women’s bodies, not even for a second – let alone 5 or 10.”
Because the janitor man handled the girl for under ten seconds, the judges ruled, his act was considered an “awkward maneuver without lust.”
“The judges ruled that he was joking? Well, it was no joke to me,” the victim told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
@tinacovi #leggeitaliana#10secondi#ma ♬ suono originale – Latina
“The caretaker came up from behind without saying anything. He put his hands down my trousers and inside my underwear.
“He groped my bottom. Then, he pulled me up – hurting my private parts,” she recalled. “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,” the student added. “I’m starting to think I was wrong to trust the institutions. This is not justice.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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