Wed Jan 19, 2005

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man who slapped a young woman on the bottom while she was making a telephone call has been handed a 14-month suspended jail term by the Supreme Court.
The tough sentence made headlines in Italy where judges have been cracking down on sexual harassment with a string of ground-breaking verdicts against unsolicited advances.

A man in northern Italy was fined 300 euros ($392.5) last year for sending a flirtatious text message to a woman.

In the past such cases would rarely have made their way into the courts of a country renowned for its macho society.

Italy's high court ruled that the slap was an act of sexual aggression, which belittled the woman and caused her "duress."

The aggressor, identified only as Ivan P., told the court that the victim was a relative, who had invented the story to get revenge in a family feud.

"I don't believe in justice anymore. The sentence has ruined my life," he told Il Messaggero newspaper. His prison term was suspended because he was a first time offender.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=7368740

The tough sentence made headlines in Italy where judges have been cracking down on sexual harassment with a string of ground-breaking verdicts against unsolicited advances.

This is ground-breaking in 2005!? LOL, good luck convincing those guys that they did anything wrong. If he was in a family feud with the woman, why wouldn't she take the slap as aggression? DUH, I guess he thinks he can slap anyone on the a**! I can just see him standing there saying, "What?" lol.

Well it's about time they started doing something to control those guys!! It is virtually impossible to be a woman in Rome and not be noticed and harrassed though most of it is just good natured fun. There are situations though where some men seem to cross the line and up until now nothing has ever really been done. They may proclaim innocence but at least it sends out some kind of message..... HANDS OFF!!

It's going to almost impossiible to stop these guys, it's a way of life with them and has been going on for generations. I was warned about it when going to Venice for the first time with a school party at the ripe old age of 13, and I've always encountered it whenever I've been over during the last 45 years!!! The only place I can truly say the bottom pinching and slapping didn't happen was a tiny village on the Austrian border where the men seemed to behave themselves, but I thought at the time the older women in the village kept them under control!!!!!

Rose

I really dout it's going to make much difference. I think ladies travelling there should always be on the alert.

And ready to give a very hard slap back, or sometimes a punch in the mouth as I've done before now.

Rose