Italy ordered to compensate woman over prosecutor’s 'normal' rape remark
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Italy must pay compensation to a woman whose rape allegations were dismissed by a female prosecutor who said it was normal for men to overcome women’s resistance.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Italy to pay compensation to a French woman, Audrey Ubeda, whose allegations of repeated rape by her partner were dismissed by a prosecutor who described the behaviour as “normal”. The court ruled that the remarks perpetuated “sexist stereotypes” and downplayed gender-based violence, leading to further victimisation of the woman.
The case dates back to April 2021, when Ubeda, then living with her Italian partner in the Avellino area of southern Italy, filed a police complaint alleging physical and mental abuse against herself and their two children. She claimed she had been raped several times and that her partner had held a knife to her throat in front of two witnesses, implying her case would end up in the newspapers like other femicides.
Later that year, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation asked for the case to be dismissed. She referred to the knife incident as “a bad joke” and said the physical violence against the children was merely disciplinary and did not exceed a parent’s authority. The prosecutor argued it was difficult to establish whether rape had occurred because the man might not have been aware of his partner’s lack of consent, “considering that it is normal for men to have to overcome a minimum level of resistance that every woman tends to display when she is tired from daily life and a man makes a sexual advance”.
The request was denied and a new prosecutor was assigned. The accused man was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by a court of first instance; he is currently free while appealing the verdict.
The ECHR ordered Italy to pay about €60,000 to Ubeda and her two children, who lived in a shelter for three years. The court found that authorities had violated the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment towards domestic violence victims, including failing to adopt adequate measures such as assigning a family home or authorising their request to move to France.
Ubeda called the ruling “a vindication” and “a victory for all women”. She told La Repubblica she was shocked to learn that the offensive remarks had come from a female prosecutor.
