The Milan Court of Appeals has sentenced a former trade union representative to 1 year and 2 months in prison for sexual assault against a flight attendant at Malpensa Airport, acting on binding orders from Italy's Supreme Court (Court of Cassation). This conviction marks the first time the defendant—a 48-year-old who was an active union official at the time of the assault—has been sentenced, overturning two prior acquittals that sparked national outrage and forced Italy's judiciary to confront outdated stereotypes about victim behavior.
Why This Matters
• Legal precedent shifts burden: Italy's Supreme Court ruled in February 2025 that a victim's "delayed reaction" is legally irrelevant to proving sexual assault—a landmark interpretation now applied across the country.
• €10,000 provisional damages awarded to the victim, Barbara D'Astolto, with full reasoning to be published within 90 days.
• Workplace safety implications: The case highlights vulnerabilities faced by women working in Italy's transport hubs, where labor unions report chronic security gaps and escalating passenger aggression.
• Old "resistance requirement" formally rejected: Courts can no longer expect victims to demonstrate immediate physical opposition—a standard campaigners had called "30 years behind the times."
The Case That Redefined Consent Law
The assault occurred in March 2018 at Malpensa Airport. The victim, a hostess working for a handling company, reported the incident immediately. Yet initial trial and appeal courts acquitted the defendant on the grounds that D'Astolto had 20 to 30 seconds during which she could have "escaped" or physically resisted, and allegedly failed to do so.
Those rulings cited the absence of "absolute impossibility to evade the conduct," reasoning that the brief window of time represented a sufficient opportunity for self-defense. Women's rights organizations, including Differenza Donna, described the judgments as a "30-year regression" and accused lower courts of reproducing victim-blaming tropes that discourage survivors from coming forward.
The Italy Court of Cassation—the nation's highest court—annulled both acquittals in February 2025 after prosecutors appealed. In its binding instruction to the Milan appeals bench, the Cassation panel clarified that shock and surprise can override a victim's ability to react, rendering any time-based threshold for resistance "legally irrelevant." The court emphasized that consent must be free, current, and explicit, and that inertia or delayed protest cannot be construed as agreement.
Today's conviction by the reconstituted appeals court marks the first time Italian judges have sentenced the defendant. The prison term is suspended, meaning he will not serve time unless he reoffends. Written reasons for the decision are due by mid-October.
What This Means for Residents and Workers
The Cassation's February 2025 ruling has already begun reshaping how prosecutors and defense attorneys argue sexual-assault cases nationwide. Legal analysts note three immediate effects:
Trial strategy pivot: Defense teams can no longer invoke the victim's reaction time—or lack of screaming, crying, or visible distress—as evidence of consent. Past cases in Turin (2017) and Busto Arsizio (2022) had similarly hinged on "insufficient emotionality" or brief delays, all now overruled by Supreme Court doctrine.
Workplace implications: Employers in customer-facing sectors—aviation, hospitality, retail—face heightened duty-of-care expectations. Union representatives at Malpensa have documented a surge in passenger aggression since 2021, including four gate staff assaulted in a single September day. Labor groups are pressing Italy's National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) and airport operator SEA to deploy more police officers in terminals and to establish a "blacklist" for violent travelers.
Legislative momentum: Parliament's lower chamber approved a reform in November 2025 that would rewrite Article 609-bis of the Penal Code to criminalize any sexual act performed "without free and current consent." However, the Senate Justice Committee amended that language in January 2026 to "against the person's will," a shift some feminist lawmakers warn could reintroduce the need for victims to prove active dissent rather than simply withholding agreement. A floor vote is expected later this year, making the legislative outcome uncertain during a period when courts are actively applying the stricter consent standard.
Broader Airport-Security Concerns
While aggregate assault statistics for Malpensa are not publicly compiled, documented incidents underscore systemic gaps. In July 2025, a 62-year-old Portuguese tourist was physically attacked and robbed of her phone inside Terminal 1; police arrested a man and a woman. In June 2026, the Italy Police Union (SILP) warned that the rollout of biometric border checks at Malpensa, combined with a "chronic shortage" of security personnel, would likely cause queue delays during peak summer travel. Union officials called for additional automated gates and a permanent increase in border-guard positions.
D'Astolto herself left her job after the initial acquittals, citing workplace defamation and the psychological toll of prolonged litigation. In interviews, she described feeling that working mothers in Italy are "resigned to endure anything" and spoke of paying "a very high price" for pursuing justice through the courts.
How Italy's Case Law Is Evolving
Until recently, vestiges of the discredited "vis grata puellae" doctrine—which presumed women secretly welcomed forceful advances and therefore bore an "obligation to resist"—lingered in some lower-court reasoning. Cassation panels have now explicitly labeled that principle "anachronistic and illogical."
Key shifts include:
• No physical struggle required: Victims need only communicate—verbally or through clear body language—that they do not consent. Silence or freezing can signal non-consent.
• Shock recognized as incapacitating: Courts acknowledge that surprise, fear, or power imbalances (such as workplace hierarchies) may prevent immediate protest.
• Consent must be affirmative: The absence of a "no" is not equivalent to a "yes."
Prosecutors and advocacy groups are watching whether the Senate's January 2026 amendment—substituting "without consent" for "against the will"—will water down these advances when the final bill reaches a floor vote, expected later this year.
What Comes Next
Full written motivation from the Milan appeals court is due within 90 days. D'Astolto's legal team may seek additional damages in a separate civil proceeding, while the defense retains the option to file a final Cassation appeal—though overturning a verdict that directly implements a Supreme Court instruction is considered unlikely.
For the thousands of women employed across Italy's aviation sector, the verdict offers both validation and a reminder of persistent gaps in on-site enforcement. As one labor organizer told reporters outside the courthouse, "The law has changed. Now the workplace culture must catch up."
