An Italian appeals court — a panel of three female jurists — acquitted two men of rape in 2017, in part because the judges agreed with the defendants’ argument that the victim looked like a man, and therefore they could not have been attracted to her. Hundreds of people on Monday protested outside the appeals court in Ancona, the city of 100,000 on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where the alleged rape occurred. But in 2017, the appeals court in Ancona overturned the conviction, after the female judges agreed with the defendants’ argument that the victim looked “too masculine” after seeing a photo of her. According to a 2015 Italian National Institute of Statistics report, nearly 1 in 3 Italian women have disclosed physical or sexual violence, and 5 percent of Italian women have reported being the victim of rape or attempted rape. Rape in Italy is more commonly reported by foreign women than by Italian women.

Source: National Post March 13, 2019 15:04 UTC