ROME — The granddaughter of Benito Mussolini is to suffer the ignominy of seeing her husband put on trial for allegedly paying for sex with schoolgirl prostitutes in Rome.
Mauro Floriani, a former police officer and the husband of Alessandra Mussolini, an MP and former topless model, is accused of having several encounters with the under-age escorts, who were just 14 and 15.
In a scandal that shocked Italians when it broke two years ago, it emerged that at least 50 men paid for sex with two schoolgirls, including middle-aged professionals and the son of a senator with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.
The girls were working out of a smart apartment building in the upmarket Rome district of Parioli.
Prosecutors have requested that Floriani be sent to trial for the alleged offences.
Paying for sex with a woman under the age of 18 is a crime under Italian law and, if found guilty, Floriani, now a manager with Trenitalia, the national railway company, faces up to six years in prison.
Floriani said that he found the girls through an escort website but had no idea that they were under age.
But other men told police that as soon as they had seen the girls, they realized how young they were and walked away from the encounters.
Floriani has three children with Mussolini, the granddaughter of the fascist leader and a prominent Right-wing MP who frequently professes admiration for “Il Duce”. They married in 1989.
Mussolini, who had an early career as an actress and whose aunt is the screen star Sophia Loren, reportedly told friends that the revelations about her husband’s alleged involvement in the prostitution ring had “destroyed” her life. The affair was particularly embarrassing because Mussolini had served as the head of a parliamentary committee on children’s rights.
Nicknamed by colleagues “Captain Mussolini”, Floriani was a high-ranking officer in the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s tax and border police, before joining Trenitalia.
Eight people involved in a prostitution ring have been convicted already.
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