Hardly a night goes by that Karima el-Mahroug does not think of what her life would be like if she had never met Silvio Berlusconi.
Fourteen years ago, el-Mahroug, then 17 and known as nightclub dancer Ruby Heart-Stealer, suddenly found herself at the centre of a national scandal and global tabloid frenzy. Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister at the time, was accused of paying her for sex during bacchanals he hosted at his villa near Milan in what became known as “Bunga Bunga” parties.
