Italian court acquits man of sexually harassing flight attendant because she took 20 seconds to respond to the harassment

An Italian appeals court has acquitted a man accused of sexually harassing a flight attendant because she took 20 seconds to respond to his groping, a case that sparked strong reactions in the country.

The case dates back to March 2018, when the flight attendant asked a union employee for help with a labor dispute. During a meeting at the union’s office in Malpensa, Raffaele Meola allegedly sexually abused the unnamed victim.

The woman contacted the charity “Differenza Donna” for victims of sexual assault and reported the alleged crime to the police, who sought prosecution against the suspect.

Meola was found not guilty by a Milan court in the first trial in 2022, on a similar basis: the flight attendant took too long to respond to the suspects’ sexual advances.

With the help of Differenza Donna, the woman appealed the verdict, but the Milan Court of Appeal has now upheld the original verdict on the grounds that the 20 seconds it took the woman to ask Meola to get off her were too long.

“This verdict sets us back 30 years,” criticized Maria Teresa Manente, the victim’s lawyer.

Manente says the appeals court ignored the legal preference case that “a sexual act carried out suddenly, insidiously and abruptly without the woman’s consent is a crime of sexual violence.”

The victim’s lawyer has now announced that the verdict will be appealed to Italy’s Supreme Court.

The court had previously ruled that the woman could be believed, but that the evidence was not sufficient to find Meola guilty because she did not immediately reject his advances when he began to massage her shoulders and kiss her.

The decision states that Meola may have mistakenly assumed that he had consent because she did not immediately tell him to stop.

Differenza Donna called for a new law that could better protect women in the event of sexual assault.