Rome  - Italy's top appeals court upheld Monday a sexual assault conviction by ruling that "jeans cannot be compared to any type of chastity belt."

The Court of Cassation contradicted its own controversial decision of almost a decade ago, when, in a similar case, it ruled that a woman wearing jeans could not claim to be raped.

Monday's ruling dealt with an appeal by a 37-year-old man convicted in 2005 of sexually molesting his girlfriend's teenage daughter by inserting his hands in her trousers.

The man claimed his alleged victim had consented to his sexual advances by unbuttoning her jeans to allow him to fondle her.

A lower appeals court in 2007 upheld the initial one-year jail sentence handed down to the man, prompting him to seek a definitive ruling from the Court of Cassation.

In 1999 the Court of Cassation overturned a rape conviction, saying that the supposed victim in that case, must have agreed to sex because her jeans could not have been removed without her consent - a ruling that drew condemnation from across Italy's political spectrum. (dpa)