The woman, named locally as Annamaria D.R., also told her lover's wife about other affairs her husband had allegedly been having in Bari and Potenza, southern Italy.

 

She argued in court during an appeal hearing that because her lover's wife did not hang up on her calls immediately, it was clear she was interested in what was being said.

 

The mistress tried to overturn a conviction of harassment originally issued by the Court of Potenza in 2013.

 

However, Italy's Supreme³ Court in Rome ruled that the fact the wife did not interrupt the calls "cannot be seen as acquiescence⁴ on the wife's part, given the serious nature of what was being revealed."

 

"The petulant⁵ and disturbing nature of the calls is shown in the anonymous forms they took," said the ruling.

 

The court upheld the original conviction of harassment, with judges saying that an anonymous call to reveal an affair is a reprehensible⁶ act regardless of whether the claim is true.

 

The mistress called her lover's wife a total of three times, once from her office phone and twice from her mobile, to tell her that her husband had betrayed her many times and continued to do so. One call lasted 28 minutes, another 11 minutes.

 

The wife, who cannot be named due to privacy laws, later decided⁷ to file a complaint and requested the examination of her phone records to trace the call.

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