Rapist is finally jailed years after Italian judge ruled foreign victim, 17, ‘was not a virgin and should have known what might happen when she got in car with man’… then let him walk free
A man who was cleared of raping a young girl because a judge ruled he should have known what might happen to her has finally been jailed after the verdict was overturned.
The alleged assault took place in 2019, when the man, now 31, was left alone in a car with a 17-year-old girl in the Italian city of Macerata.
During a 2019 trial, judges acquitted the then-25-year-old after concluding that the incident did not count as sexual assault because she was not a virgin and should have known the consequences of getting into a car with a man alone.
The controversial decision was overturned today by the Ancona Court of Appeal and the man was sentenced to three years in prison.
The appeal came at the request of the Attorney General due to the sensitivity of the case involving a minor.
The girl’s lawyer, Fabio Maria Galiani, welcomed the verdict on Tuesday and said: ‘Justice has been served. We returned to 2025 after the first instance court decision that took us back to the Middle Ages.’
The victim, a foreigner who came to Koşuta for a study abroad program, had gone out with a friend and two men, and was later ‘left in the car’ with the attacker after his friend ran away with the other man.
In 2019, the court ruled that the girl ‘had already had sexual intercourse, so she was in a position to imagine possible developments of the situation’.
A man who was acquitted of raping a young girl in the Italian city of Macerata because the judge ruled that he should have known what might happen to him was eventually jailed after the verdict was overturned. File photo shows the view of Macerata city center
The judges also said the teenager ‘did not resist or seek help in any way’.
The victim and her lawyers strongly opposed these conclusions; lawyers said the girl ‘always reiterated that she did not want any contact with the defendant; He even tried to punch him away, but he didn’t move.
The decision in 2019 sparked a storm of criticism, with MP Laura Boldrini saying: ‘A woman is once again denied justice for the violence she has suffered because the culture of consent is lacking.
There is a lack of education to understand that ‘only yes’ is yes, that a woman may not respond during violence because it is often impossible: fear, shock and pain paralyze and make any response impossible. Sufficient! It is no longer acceptable to put the victim in the dock.’
Last year, a Spanish court acquitted a man of raping a 12-year-old girl after ruling that their relationship was part of Roma culture.
The court in Ciudad Real in central Spain took into account the socio-cultural context of the Gypsy ethnic group to reduce the sentence for sexual assault and harassment of a minor by a 20-year-old man.
Thereupon, the perpetrator who made his 12-year-old victim pregnant with twins was acquitted.
The decision stated that the relationship was ‘always consensual within the framework of a romantic relationship’ and that the two were ‘close in age and maturity’.
After the first examination by a doctor that the girl was pregnant, the authorities were informed and the man was arrested.
Prosecutors had requested an 11-year prison sentence, but the court acquitted him.
The age of consent in Spain is 16, meaning anyone younger cannot consent to sex. However, the court decided that the man should benefit from the legal exception.
