AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from public office for life after being found guilty of paying a teenager for sex at one of his notorious 'bunga bunga' parties.
Former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, 76, paid underage Moroccan teenager Karima El Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby the heart-stealer, for sex and then tried to cover it up with phone calls to police when she was arrested for alleged theft. Berlusconi and the woman had denied having had sex.
Prosecutors were seeking a six-year jail term for underage sex and abuse of power but three female judges at a Milan court today handed him a longer sentence of seven years.
Berlusconi was also given a lifetime ban from holding public office after the former Prime Minister was found guilty today.
But the verdict can be appealed twice before the sentence becomes final, which could take months, or even years.
This means he will not have to spend any time in jail unless he loses his court appeals.
Neither Berlusconi nor the woman at the centre of the case, Karima el-Mahroug, better known by her nickname Ruby the Heart Breaker, have given evidence.
She was 17 at the time of the alleged encounters but passed herself off as being 24. while the age of sexual consent in Italy is 14, it is illegal to pay anyone under the age of 18 for sex.
Ms El-Mahroug was called by the defence but failed to show on a couple of occasions, delaying the trial. Berlusconi's team eventually dropped her from the witness list.
She did appear in the separate trial of three Berlusconi aides charged with procuring prostitutes for the parties.
She told that court that Berlusconi's disco featured aspiring showgirls dressed as sexy nuns and nurses performing striptease acts, and that one woman even dressed up as president Barack Obama.
Berlusconi was not in court on as the three female judges began deliberating his fate - or today when the final verdict was delivered.
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