10-second rule in the event of an assault?: Uproar in social media after the Grapsch verdict

10-second rule for assault?
Uproar in social media after Grapsch verdict

07/13/2023 8:59 am

On a school staircase in Rome, a man grabs a 17-year-old girl from behind in her pants. She reports him. In the process he is acquitted, with an astonishing reasoning. The outrage is not only great on social media.

A case of sexual harassment has sparked a storm of protests on social media in Italy. The reason is a court decision in which a teenager’s lawsuit was decided. In April 2022, the caretaker at her school grabbed the 17-year-old from behind in her pants on a staircase. She was on her way to the next lesson with a friend.

The 66-year-old also admitted this, but dismissed the attack as a joke. This is reported, among other things, by the British BBC. The court was also unable to identify any crime to be punished and acquitted the man. This fact alone outrages young Italians in particular. But the reasoning of the court for its judgment upsets her even more.

The court refused to punish the caretaker because the assault lasted less than ten seconds and was done without lewd intentions. Therefore, “no crime can be identified,” it said in the verdict. The public prosecutor had even demanded a prison sentence of three and a half years.

“Double Cheated”

“The judges take it as a joke? It wasn’t a joke for me,” said the student of the newspaper “Corriere della Sera”. The caretaker came from behind without saying anything. “He put his hands in my pants and in my underwear.” She felt the man’s hands more than clearly. “It’s not a joke to me. This is not how an old man should ‘joke’ with a teenager.” She feels cheated twice – by her school and by the judiciary. She fears the ruling will discourage girls and women from coming forward if they face such attacks.

Since the verdict, the hashtags #10secondi and #palpatabreve, which translates to “brief touching,” have been trending on social media. Numerous Italian women, but also Italians, have published videos of themselves in which they look silently at the camera and touch or allow themselves to be touched on their breasts or private parts for ten seconds. The first post was posted by “White Lotus” actor Paolo Camilli, since then thousands of people have followed suit, among them Chiara Ferragni, Italy’s most famous influencer with 29.4 million followers on Instagram.