A 60-year-old Italian social services worker who had sex with an 11-year-old girl has had his paedophile conviction overturned by the Supreme Court. Apparently, the previous verdict failed to take into account Pietro Lamberti and the unnamed minor's "amorous relationship."

Mr Lamberti was convicted of sexual acts with a minor in February 2011 after he was caught naked in bed with the girl during an investigation by the police based on wiretap evidence.

He was sentenced to five years in prison.

An appeals court later upheld the verdict, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in October, claiming that the verdict did not consider the "'consensus,' the existence of an amorous relationship, the absence of physical force, the girl's feelings of love."

The verdict has only been made public in December when the local paper Il Quotidiano della Calabria published the news. It has then "slowly spread to social media networks," according the AFP.

As expected, the news has angered and disgusted the online community, which blamed the Italian justice system for its decision.

Commenters pointed out that Mr Lamberti abused the trust given by the girl under his care. As Il Quotidiano reported, the girl "came from a poor family who had known and trusted the social worker."