Patterico's Pontifications

2/15/2011

Berlusconi Indicted For Sex with Teen Prostitute

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:43 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

From the AP:

An Italian judge on Tuesday ordered Premier Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl, then tried to cover it up….

Prosecutors allege Berlusconi paid for sex with the Moroccan girl, nicknamed Ruby, then used his influence to get her out of police custody when she was detained for the unrelated suspected theft of euro3,000 ($4,103). They allege that Berlusconi feared her relationship to him would be revealed.

Both Berlusconi and Ruby have denied having sexual relations, although she has said Berlusconi gave her euro7,000 ($9,550) on their first meeting.

The child prostitution charge carries a possible prison sentence of six months to three years. The abuse of influence charge, which experts say is more dangerous for Berlusconi, carries a possible sentence of four to 12 years.

Read the whole thing.  But, but…  wait, I thought Europeans were above this kind of provincial Puritanism?

And of course just yesterday, we got this golden nugget of a quote from him:

“Every woman that has had the opportunity to know me knows my regard for them: I have always behaved with the greatest attention and respect towards them,” the billionaire businessmen said. “I have always made it so that every woman feels, how should I say, special.”

Finally in unrelated news, Roman Polanski was quoted as saying, “You mean I can’t go to Italy, either?”

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

31 Responses to “Berlusconi Indicted For Sex with Teen Prostitute”

  1. Going to Italy would actually be worse than coming back to the US…

    The mafia doesn’t care for child-molesters, I understand…

    Scott Jacobs (041d9e)

  2. Oh…they left out the “Bunga Bunga” parties. That’s the best part of the story.

    Xmas (a633e2)

  3. If they both deny it, then what is the basis for the charge?

    Steven Den Beste (99cfa1)

  4. Political scandal in Italy. In other words, it’s Tuesday.

    quasimodo (4d0d2c)

  5. @Steven –

    I suspect that, as in almost every case, it will be the cover-up and use of influence that will be this guy’s downfall.

    Scott Jacobs (218307)

  6. Steven

    well, who knows. There can be third party witnesses, video tape, etc., etc.

    And Scott is right to point out that there may have been a cover-up too. of course the cover up is not worse than the underlying crime imho, but it often is more easily proven.

    Of course all this reminded me of the most hilarious sex scandal of all time…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Springer#Political_career

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  7. Aaron, I have to disagree.

    The best would have to be Marion Berry.

    Scott Jacobs (218307)

  8. One might enjoy a look at Italian political corruption and contemporary life in Michael Dibden’s eleven volumes of his Aurelio Zen mysteries. I think I’d much prefer Italy over places like Sweden or Ireland. Muslims seem to be slowly taking over Sweden. As far as the politicians go, I’ve been told that women gravitate to powerful men and many pols have to fight the ladies off. I suppose few are as goofy as Nobel Laureate algore with his sense of entitlement.At least Lurch Kerry marries the filthy rich ladies. Just castrate Polanski.

    Calypso Louie Farrakhan (798aba)

  9. SCott

    mmm, barry is funny, but its really hard to beat the abject stupidity of paying for a prostitute with a check.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  10. True enough, Aaron…

    Scott Jacobs (218307)

  11. the Wild Oats founder guy has this same problem

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  12. Who said that Polanski cannot go to Italy? Given other Italian movie director’s habits, there must be a special law for the special people.

    Kevin M (73dcc9)

  13. Scott

    but Barry “the b-tch set me up!” Barry is pretty funny too.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  14. A whore will say anything if you pay her enough. An Arab whore at half price.

    nk (db4a41)

  15. nk

    what the hell? “an arab whore?”

    what does a person being arabic have to do with anything?

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  16. Given that the law has in the past been changed in such a way that prosecutions of Berlucsoni had to be dropped, why does anyone assuem the same won’t happen here?

    aphrael (9802d6)

  17. Arabs lie as naturally as they breathe.

    nk (db4a41)

  18. nk

    well, i can’t stop you from thinking that way, but i have known plenty of people as white as me, who lied through their teeth, and plenty of arabs who were were above reproach. your stereotype just isn’t true.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  19. Aaron, did you carefully ask those whiteys if they had any Arab blood ?

    I thought not.

    Just kidding.

    I wonder how many of you have ever read this essay about a comparison between England and Italy 50 years after the war.

    Mike K (8f3f19)

  20. Does this qualify his wife to be Secretary of State for Italy?

    johnnycab23513 (e15f0f)

  21. I admit I am biased. Egyptian Arabs looted and raped my homeland in 1780 and 1825.

    Hate Russians too, for the help they promised and never gave.

    I like the Society of Friends. They kept their promise. The phrase “Washington’s Land gave us help too” is in the Greek national anthem.

    nk (db4a41)

  22. nk

    look i am part welsh, scottish, german and english. i am pretty sure that some of my ancestors completely screwed over other ancestors.

    you have to let go of that old world stuff. we are in the new world where none of that matters, unless you make it matter.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  23. Hey, Aaron, my ancestors kicked the crap out of your ancestors .. or maybe the other way ’round.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  24. >>>Just castrate Polanski.>>>

    For what? Shagging a 13 year old who wanted him to make her famous, and then she lies about being raped to the grand jury after she got caught by her mother?

    If there isn’t a statute of limitations on this sort of bullshit, then there should be. Polanski will never be able to go to certain countries for the rest of his life, and that’s punishment enough. Leave him be.

    SilkRoad (05c4ef)

  25. Well, there’s our contribution from the misogynist pedophile fan club for today.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  26. 6) Bob Beckel, was much the same way,

    narciso (c8ccf1)

  27. Comment by SilkRoad — 2/15/2011 @ 4:49 pm

    Just to clarify: You’re saying that having one’s travel restricted is an adequate consequence for the sodomizing rape of a 13 year old girl – after first plying her with Quaaludes and champagne?

    Do you have a daughter?

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  28. #22

    Aaron, I would like tell you what happened to me a few years ago – perhaps it was more like ten, when I was only 39. I was attending a spiritual retreat offered to Catholic men which involved, among many other things, a night’s stay ( a sleepover, if you will) in a Catholic church.

    Any good Catholic can relate at least one story of dozing off during mass, but that night saw us all initialy uneasy or unable to “just go to sleep” – perhaps that was one of the intended points – anyway, I struck up a conversation with a nearby fellow and we learned that our ancestors had been involved, in a very intimate way, with the Spanish Inquisition. We came to that subject by way or our last names.

    My new friend and I each had a fair, if incomplete, knowledge of our respective family ancestories. My family descended from Sephardic Jews living in Spain. His descended from aristocracy living in Spain. My ancestors were subjected to the Inquisition, obliging them to flee. One of his ancestors directly “inquired” of the Jews – if you catch my drift.

    Now, we both considered it unlikely that his ancestor had directly questioned my ancestor. Furthermore, we knew there was no longer any personal culpability to assign, much less bear, for those incidents. But we both felt it necessary to atone, verbally at least, for “the sins of our fathers”. He offered a sincere apology on behalf of his family to mine. I accepted the apology on behalf of my family, and extended forgiveness to his ancestors.

    In all honesty, we (or perhaps I) had expected no more than to just say words, shake hands, and laugh about it. But something real happened as each of us spoke in turn. Something that carried enough weight, at least, to relate the incident to the elders in my family (I found out later that he had informed his family elders) whose personal reaction surprised each of us, and it became evident that our elders felt it important, too.

    Where am I going with this? I have no idea. Maybe we live in a world where history matters, where it inspires, instructs, and exacts justice. However lame that may sound.

    Heh, maybe I should make bumper stickers that read “Make history matter!”.

    Felipe (02954a)

  29. Aaron, I have to take serious issue with you making ANY equation here between Berlusconi and Polanski.

    First off — while our society certainly takes a dim view of having relations with a girl of 17, there’s at least a strong measure of competent judgment possible on the part of a 17yo. The infantilization of the teenager in our society is a largely recent phenomenon of the last 25-50 years, depending on locale.

    On the other hand — Polanski’s victim was, what, 12 or 13? That’s not even the same ballpark of crossing a line.

    Secondly, and far, far more critically, it appears that the relations between the two were largely consensual, the chief concern being whether or not a 17yo can truly give consent. Polanski’s victim, however, not only was not giving any consent whatsoever, according to court transcripts, she was literally crying and begging him to stop. In other words, it wasn’t “statutory rape”, it was flat out (sorry, Whoopie) “rape rape”. And sodomy rape at that.

    In summary — Polanski should long since have had his balls cut off and shoved down his throat.

    Berlusconi’s almost certainly going to pay an unjustly high price for his acked screw-up.

    Smock Puppet (c9dcd8)

  30. Silkroad

    > For what? Shagging a 13 year old who wanted him to make her famous, and then she lies about being raped to the grand jury after she got caught by her mother?

    You left out the part where Polanski pled guilty. And even if you were right, none of that is an excuse or justification. He is not supposed to have sex with a 13 year old girl if she is positively begging for him to do it. period.

    > If there isn’t a statute of limitations on this sort of bullshit, then there should be.

    There is one. Polanski was charged and convicted well within the SOL. And then he fled the jurisdiction, which suspended the SOL. You know, because we don’t let people get away with raping 13 year old girls just because they leave the country.

    Smock

    > I have to take serious issue with you making ANY equation here between Berlusconi and Polanski.

    I didn’t say they were the same. I only joked that that Berlusconi’s prosecution would suggest they wouldn’t tolerate Polanski either.

    Yes, obviously 17 is not as inherently f-ed up as 13-14. In fact in many states, including my own, the age of consent is 16. Which strikes me personally as low, but not crazy low.

    On the other hand, in Holland the age of consent is 12. Which is severely f—ed up. I am sure Polanski is living there.

    By the way, I will quibble with one thing. The fact that this is a child prostitute does knock it up a little in severity, imho. Not up to Polanski levels, but there you go.

    Igot

    I appreciate the sentiment, but don’t say the f word. Ask patterico and he might let your comment out of the filter, making an exception to the rules.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)


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