The Council on group rapes: «Yes to a reduction in sentences for less serious cases»

The Consultation on December 29th has modified the norma penalty on gang rape declaring theillegitimacy constitutional of crime in the part where the reduction of the sentence for the cases of «less gravity».

For judges, «if the conduct carried out by the offender has a disvalue significantly inferior to that normally associated with the abstract figure of crimesuch that it can be considered of safe less seriousAnd unreasonable» that the punishment for the crime of group sexual violence « cannot be decreasedas already provided for equally serious crimes, such as sexual violence and sexual acts with a minor”. The ruling of the Constitutional Court therefore declared the article to be unconstitutional 609octies of the penal code, for violation of the articles 3 and 27 of the Constitutionin the part in which it does not provide for the applicability of the aforementioned decrease for less serious cases.

“The failure to provide for a reduction – similar to that already provided for the crimes of sexual violence and sexual acts with a minor, the judges further explain – precludes calibrating the sanction to the concrete case which presents less serious characteristics”. “The latter, however – maintains the Consultation – can only be identified in the cases of conduct with a significantly lower negative value, as such conduct still affects the freedom of self-determination in the sexual sphere of the offended person, who suffers an attack, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that is more intense than in the case of sexual violence”.

The ruling will send shockwaves through many ongoing proceedings such as that of second degree which sees three Sardinians accused, footballers of minor categories – Erminio Coni e Andrea Finotto 38 years old, Alessio Costella of 36 – for having groped a multi-medallist Olympic athlete in the private parts, after “surrounding” her in a pub Of Trastevere a Romabut who in light of the Council’s ruling could see their sentences lightened and avoid prison.

The lawyers Valerio Martis and Ezio Ullasci, lawyers of two of the accused, had obtained from the Court of Appeal of Rome the suspension of the judgment waiting for the Council to decide on theexception of legitimacy
constitutional relating precisely to the crime of group sexual violence,
which, unlike sexual violence committed by an individual, does not
up to now it provided for a reduction in sentences for “lesser serious” offences.

The judges of second instance, at the end of January, will have to decide whether to apply
the Court’s ruling to the case of the young champion
Constitutional. In that case, if at the end of the process it will be
the sentence of 5 years and 4 months imposed on the three defendants was confirmed
abbreviated, the appeal magistrates will be forced to apply a
reduction of the sentence “by an amount not exceeding two thirds”. At that
point, falling below the 4 year threshold, they would avoid prison.

When the victim was heard by the investigating judge of Rome on 28 May 2024, he retraced those “30-45 seconds” of the violence suffered two years earlier and of the
psychological consequences that resulted from it: he in fact explained that
she is no longer able to go shopping alone, being afraid of being
surrounded by many people.

The story dates back to February 2022.
The athlete was in a club with friends. The group was celebrating a birthday. The three defendants, on holiday in the capital and intrigued by the cheerfulness in the club, approached the group and asked the athlete for a selfie. And this is the moment in which Coni, Finotto and Costella cross an unforgivable boundary. They abuse the athlete, groping her everywhere. Even in the private parts, as the victim says. The friends spring to their friend’s defense. The young woman is in fact shocked by the behavior of the three defendants. Her face is stone, the words don’t come out of her mouth, such is the violence of Finotto, Coni and Costella.

The preliminary hearing judge Livio Sabatini defined it as a “humiliating and objectively violent gesture”, especially against a vulnerable person who had just undergone an operation and was wearing bandages. Furthermore, because of
that attack, some stitches had opened. He had
a panic attack and huddled near the counter. The friend,
who had not witnessed the violence, had reached it and then they were
leave the room to get some air. Two of the boys defended by the lawyers Martis and Ullasci had sent her a letter of apology: “We didn’t reach out, but in any case we deeply regret not having made sure it didn’t happen.” The third defendant, now 40 years old, had taken on the
paternity of the gesture, expressing his regret «for having
dragged his friends into this affair.”

But the athlete said he felt “at least four hands” on him. According to the judge of first instance, all three are responsible for the crime of group sexual violence, which – due to the circumstances in which it occurred – cannot be
consider it “lighter”. Now the Court of Appeal will decide whether
can benefit from the “discount” provided by the Consulta.

«The failure to provide a safety valve that allows the judge
to modulate the punishment, in order to adapt it to the concrete gravity of the individual
conduct, may result in the imposition of a sanction
proportionate”, explains the Council, as the case of
gang rape, as well as providing for «a particularly edictal minimum
high” (8 years), “involves a wide range of conduct from
diversified negative value: from carnal violence to acts of lust
violent”. This sentence, signed by Filippo Patroni Griffi, is in fact
resulting from the appeal of the Milan Juvenile Court which deems
having to apply a reduced sentence to a boy accused of raping
group. In that case, «the groping took place over the clothes and
for a very limited time”, explain the judges.

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December 31, 2025

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