Silence does not mean consent. So there can be violence even without explicit dissent of the victim. On the basis of this principle, the investigating judge rejected the request for dismissal by the Milan prosecutor’s office for sexual assault by a 32-year-old boy on a 27-year-old girl, with mental fragility (and who committed suicide in March): «In this case of sexual violence», he explained, «a manifest dissent is not required at all». Instead, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly pointed out, consent is required which «must be expressed or, if tacit», must be unambiguous.
According to the prosecutor’s office, which had asked for it to be dismissed, “the suspect may have misunderstood the girl’s silence due to the late hour, due to fatigue”. With this motivation the prosecutor had asked for the filing, but the investigating judge ordered the process request to be formulated.
The facts date back to May 2019, when at three in the morning, in the Abbiategrasso area, the 32-year-old had given the 27-year-old a lift. The man approached her while she, who had quarreled with a friend and was crying, was “crouched on the ground”. When the girl got into the car, he headed for his home “taking her by the arm to lead her home”, and there the violence took place.
In June 2019, the young woman had reported that manwhich he had never seen before that night, and reiterated his account even in a probationary incident.
The prosecutor wrote that “it does not appear that the young woman screamed or squirmed”, nor did she express “manifest dissent, with gestures or voice”. The magistrate, however, rejected these arguments. The 27-year-old had stated that when she realized that the 32-year-old was not accompanying her to her home she froze and then tried to resist as she was “dragged inside the building”. But she said she was “in a state of shock and in the throes of fear”, so much so that I was unable “to speak or move”.
Now, due to the magistrate’s decision, a trial will be set up.
Source: Vanity Fair

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