Italy overturns pedophile conviction, says girl, 11, 'in love'

[JDC]

ROME, Italy – Italy's highest court has overturned the conviction of a 60-year-old man for having sex with an 11-year-old girl, because the verdict failed to take into account their "amorous relationship."

Pietro Lamberti, a social services worker in Catanzaro in southern Italy, was convicted in February 2011 and sentenced to 5 years in prison for sexual acts with a minor.

The verdict was later upheld by an appeals court.

But Italy's supreme court ruled that the verdict did not sufficiently consider "the 'consensus', the existence of an amorous relationship, the absence of physical force, the girl's feelings of love.”

The court's October 15 decision to order a retrial was made public this month by Il Quotidiano della Calabria and slowly spread to social media networks, where it sparked heated reactions against the Italian justice system.

According to Il Quotidiano, the girl came from a poor family who had known and trusted the social worker.

Lamberti was caught naked in bed with the girl after an investigation by police based largely on wire-tap evidence, it said.

Source: Rappler


Thoughts?

[Taylor_P]

IN America that would be headline news! Anyway 5 years? over here he would get 10-20 years w/ no chance of parole. Still always interesting to see how law is around the world cause the US justice system has too many loopholes.

[Omar Aly]

It's funny how an illegal act in one country could be a perfectly normal act in another, for example in India it's perfectly normal to see a 11 years old married, at older times most women used to get married at really young ages, you could all check at what ages were your grandmas married and you'll know what I'm talking about.

[Batta]

IN America that would be headline news!

It was a headline news indeed.

I feel so ashamed sometimes because of some controversial punishments issued by our justice system.

Another example of this is that basically you can't do anything against a robber found in your house.. someone shot robbers and got jailed while the criminal was released. This is nonsense.

[[WS]Jacob]

I didn't know you could measure love or am I wrong?

[Dean.]

There should be an international law which allows authorities to cut something off, if you know what I mean.

[Gandalf]

It was a headline news indeed.

I feel so ashamed sometimes because of some controversial punishments issued by our justice system.

Another example of this is that basically you can't do anything against a robber found in your house.. someone shot robbers and got jailed while the criminal was released. This is nonsense.

Released ? The guy should have learned how to shoot

[Batta]

Released ? The guy should have learned how to shoot

Yeah double fail there