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| Ms Mahroug insists Mr Berlusconi was "like a father" to her |
Italy - She may be only 18, but by her own admission, the woman at the centre of the sex scandal engulfing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has not been shielded from the darker sides of life. Karima El Mahroug - the night-club dancer whose stage name is Ruby Rubacuori, or Ruby Heartstealer - says as a child, she was a victim of rape and abuse. She has been in and out of care since running away from home at - reports say - either 12 or 14 years old. The transcripts of tapped telephone conversations quoted in Italian media suggest she began her acquaintance with Mr Berlusconi when she was just 16 years old. But Miss Mahroug has sought to draw a distinction between her treatment by men in general and her treatment by Mr Berlusconi. "It is the first time in my life that a man has not tried to take me to bed. He behaved like a father, I swear," she told Italian newspaper La Repubblica last year... Karima El Mahroug reportedly arrived in Italy with her family from Morocco in 2003, settling in the eastern Sicilian coastal town of Letojanni. Her childhood was a difficult one, she said in an interview in January on one of the TV channels owned by Mr Berlusconi. "When I was nine years old, I was raped by two of my uncles - my father's brothers," she was quoted as saying. "The only person who I dared to talk to about what happened, my mother, said, 'Keep quiet, because if your dad finds out you're not a virgin, he'll kill you,'" she said. Full Story>>
Italy 'Sex' Scandal Woman Raped by Uncles, Burned by Father... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12473645
