Italian court sparks outrage in clearing man of sexual assault for "quick grope" of teen student
CBSN
An Italian court has cleared a school aide from charges of sexually assaulting a student, determining that the aide only touched the student for "5 to 10 seconds" without "libidinous or lusty intent."
The 17-year-old Roman high school student – known only as "Laura" — was climbing school stairs with a friend when she hiked up her pants. That's when 66-year-old Antonio Avola came up behind her, slipped his hand inside her trousers and lifted her slightly in the air by her underwear.
Avola admitted to touching the girl in the April 2022 incident, at the Roberto Rossellini high school in Rome, but insisted that he did so only as a joke. Roman prosecutors asked for a jail term of three-and-a-half years. However, the court ruled on July 6 that the contact was so brief that it left "ample margins of doubt" about Avola's intentions, and said it found the defense argument that it had been a joke "convincing."
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