Silvio Berlusconi kept paying party girl after sex scandal broke

Published on Sunday 23 January 2011 17:08

A TV weather girl was paid €115,000 (about £98,000) by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi after attending his infamous sex parties, it emerged yesterday.

Prosecutors have discovered bank records which show how Mr Berlusconi paid Alessandra Sorcinelli, 26, as late as last Monday - three days after the sex scandal surrounding him broke. The payments started last year and averaged €10,000 a month.

Ms Sorcinelli refers to the figure in a message she sent to Mr Berlusconi's "fixer" Giuseppe Spinelli: "May I urgently remind you of the €10,000 bank transfer." The 389-page prosecution documents then detail a payment from Mr Berlusconi's account at Segrate near Milan into one in Ms Sorcinelli's name at the Bank of Sardinia in the city.

According to the paperwork the money was called a "non-interest earning loan."

Mr Berlusconi is being investigated over allegations he paid dancer Karima El Mahroug, 17, for sex after she attended one of his "bunga bunga" parties.

In the same inquiry, prosecutors have accused him of extortion after he is said to have put pressure on the police to release her after she was arrested for theft.

Yesterday investigators were said to have found "interesting photographs" from his parties. The pictures were found at the home of regional councillor Nicole Minetti, said to have recruited girls for the parties.