Agent of actor Noemi Letizia claims Silvio Berlusconi had sex with his client

The allegations of sexual impropriety that have plagued former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for much of the past four years returned to haunt him last night following the screening of a weekly current affairs programme that claimed he had underage sex with 17-year-old Neapolitan Noemi Letizia.

The allegation was made on Servizio Pubblico by actors' agent Francesco Chiesa Soprani, who claims to have acted as Ms Letizia's agent for a time. The previously unknown Ms Letizia made international headlines in the summer of 2009 when the then prime minister surprisingly attended her 18th-birthday party in a Naples restaurant.

At the time, Mr Berlusconi said he had attended the party by way of a favour to her father, who was an “acquaintance”.

Not convincing
Not everyone was convinced by this explanation. Indeed, the episode prompted Mr Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, to ask for a divorce, saying she could no longer live with a man who "consorts with minors".

In his TV interview last night, Mr Chiesa Soprani claims Ms Letizia had told him she had had sex with Mr Berlusconi in Rome when she was a minor.

The agent said it was untrue that Mr Berlusconi had known Ms Letizia’s family, adding that when she and her father first came to his office, Mr Letizia had told him that Mr Berlusconi “has already paid us”.

Mr Chiesa Soprani also made serious accusations in relation to Karima "Ruby" El Mahroug, the 20-year-old Moroccan woman at the centre of the "Rubygate" sex trial in which Mr Berlusconi stands accused of "involvement in underage prostitution" and "abuse of office".

'I am a minor'
He claimed that when he met Ruby, she told him she did not need an agent because Mr Berlusconi and two of his associates were "looking after me because I am a minor".

In other words, according to Mr Chiesa Soprani, Mr Berlusconi had known very well that Ruby was a minor, something the former prime minister has vehemently denied throughout the past two years.

Mr Chiesa Soprani concluded his interview by saying that he “wanted Italians to know” just what sort of person Mr Berlusconi was, adding that he was not worried he might be “threatened” or even “shot” because of his allegations.