The school janitor, who se name is Antonio Avola, is 66-years-old.

The female student is 17-years-old.

The janitor admitted to touching the student but disputed the intent of the touching. Here’s what the student claimed happened last year.

The teenage student testified that she was walking up the stairs to class in April of last year when she feltsomeone put his hands inside her pants and underwear and lifted her up in the air. She turned to see the janitor behind her and then walked away without speaking, she said during the trial, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera

She alleged that the man chased her and told her: “Love, you know I was joking.” The physical contact lasted between five and 10 seconds, she said.

The it-was-a-joke defense appears to have worked on the Italian Judge overseeing the case.

Prosecutors had called for a sentence of three and a half years in prison.

But a court in Rome ruled that his groping had “only lasted between five and 10 seconds” and that his hand had not “lingered” down her underpants for very long.

He had not intended to seriously molest the teenager, the court said. Putting his hand inside her trousers was “bumbling” but had not been a sign of “sexual desire”.

His defence, that the whole thing was a playful joke, “appears convincing”, judges ruled, deciding to acquit Mr Avola of the sexual assault charge.

Honestly this sounds like a Monty Python skit featuring Eric Idle as the groper and John Cleese as a judge:

Idle: Yes, your honor I did grab her breasts but only to steady myself. I assure you lust had nothing whatsoever to do with it.’

Cleese: But this says it happened 11 times in one day with 9 different women. You groped some of them twice.

Idle: Yes, well I really am terribly, terribly clumsy, your honor.

Judge: Sounds reasonable to me. You’re free to go.

Understandably, a lot of people are angry about this. Italian papers can’t believe it.

In a front-page opinion piece on Wednesday, one Italian columnist wrote: “How putting a hand inside the underpants of a young girl for 10 seconds can be considered a joke, I still have not been able to comprehend. He said he was just messing around – and nothing happened to him.”

The court’s ruling carried a stark message for the schoolgirl, the columnist wrote in La Stampa: “She should have had a better sense of humour.”

Italians and others have been mocking the ruling online:

Since the ruling, palpata breve – a brief groping – has become a trend on Instagram and TikTok in Italy, along with the #10secondi hashtag.

Italians have posted videos looking at the camera in silence and touching their intimate parts for 10 seconds straight.

The videos are often uncomfortable to watch but they have the aim of showing just how long 10 seconds can feel.

The first was posted by White Lotus actor Paolo Camilli, and since then thousands of people have followed suit.

Another video was reposted by Chiara Ferragni, Italy’s most famous influencer who has 29.4 million followers on Instagram.

Another influencer, Francesco Cicconetti wrote on TikTok: “Who decides that 10 seconds is not a long time? Who times the seconds, while you’re being harassed?”

Here’s one of the videos mocking the time limit.

Outrage in Italy as a court ruled that a school janitor was not guilty of groping a student because "the grope lasted less than 10 seconds". https://t.co/XZTIRuwuHL

A #10secondi video mocking the court's decision

Ht @MKWilliamsRome
pic.twitter.com/kfOHU9QWSh

— Ruth Ann Crystal, MD (@CatchTheBaby) July 13, 2023

This really doesn’t seem like a tough case. If nothing else, the fact that the groper was a 66-year-old man working in a school and the victim was a teenager seems like a pretty obvious problem. I suspect if this happened here in the US you might have an angry father who would show the janitor what 10 seconds of unwanted touching looks like. As it is, I’m guessing some union rule will ensure the groper gets returned to his job at the school.

The victim in this case said she felt betrayed twice: “I feel betrayed – first by the school, where it happened, and now by the court. (…) I’m starting to think I was wrong to trust the institutions.”