Patting bottoms not a crime, rules court

ROME, JAN. 26. Patting another person's bottom is not a crime, Italy's Supreme Court has ruled. Judges have decided that, as long as the pat is not prolonged or ``of sexual intent'', it is acceptable.

They acquitted a health official from a town near Venice who was said to have ``failed to contain himself, and extended his hand to the bottom of a female employee''.

The man was initially convicted and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, barred from public office and ordered to pay damages, after he was found to have threatened his victim, promising to ruin her career if she reported the incident.

The decision to overturn that judgment confirmed the reputation for controversial decisions by Italy's male-dominated Supreme Court in sex-related cases.

It said there was nothing wrong with ``a one-off, unexpected pat on the bottom'' provided that it was not ``lustful''.

Tinto Brass, a Venetian soft-porn film director, hailed the decision, saying that, while he did not know what it was like to receive a pat on the bottom, ``giving one is certainly a pleasurable experience''.

But Simona Ventura, an actress and television presenter, was appalled. She called the decision ``shameful'' and said women should be prepared to be ``a little less feminine and keep a hammer with them to use to hit offensive brutes on the head''.

``Personally,'' she added, ``anyone who did that to me could expect to be hit in a place where it hurts.''

Ms. Maretta Scoca, an MP and president of the Institute of Human Studies, said: ``Brutish and bold office managers should beware.

The sentence does not authorise the liberal and indiscriminate patting on the bottoms of employees.''

Several years ago - in its most controversial decision - the Supreme Court ruled that a young woman wearing jeans could not be held to have been raped, since the fact that she had ``to help her rapist to take them off'' automatically implied consent.

The resulting public outcry, which included women MPs wearing jeans to parliament in protest, forced the judges to scrap the ruling.

- @ Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2000.

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Section  : International
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