Lesbian sex at Berlusconi’s ‘inelegant’ dinners: Court

Young women attended “inelegant” dinner parties at ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s luxury homes for personal gain and even had lesbian sex in the hope of stirring his desire to sleep with them, judges in Italy have ruled.

“In most cases, the women just hoped they would reap economic or other personal benefits, while some had longer-term career plans to transform their extremely modest lives,” the judges in the southern Italian city of Bari said late Wednesday.

“The women hoped to come to his attention and to be chosen to spend the night with him... even by having lesbian sex each with each other.”

The judges were explaining the prison sentences they handed out to businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini and three others for recruiting prostitutes to attend orgies at Mr Berlusconi’s homes.

Berlusconi, 79, has always insisted the soirees, held in 2008-2009, were “elegant dinners” where he sang and played the piano to the delight of his guests - claims which the trial judges rejected.

“Berlusconi was the key player at the inelegant dinners organised at his residences, where he benefitted from the constant presence of attractive, provocative, uninhibited, unscrupulous and above all extremely young women,” the judges said.

Berlusconi has admitted he is “no saint” but claims has never paid for sex and that he had no idea any of the 26 women who attended his parties were prostitutes.

The escort scandal broke after one of the women, Patrizia D’Addario, who was recruited by Tarantini to attend a party at Berlusconi’s Rome residence in 2009, claimed she was paid to have sex with the then-prime minister, taped their alleged encounter and released it to the press.