Judge: Jeans no obstacle to rape

Italy's top criminal court, the Court of Cassation, has upheld the sexual assault conviction of a man who argued that the victim's jeans prevented the attack.

The court provoked outrage a decade ago by ruling that it was impossible to rape a woman wearing jeans. "The fact that the girl was wearing jeans was not an obstacle" for the Padua man, whose name was not released, to touch her, the ruling said.

In 1999, the same court overturned a different rape conviction, saying it is impossible to forcibly remove a woman's jeans if she resists.