Berlusconi's undoing : Ruby Rubacuori, a 17-year-old Moroccan belly dancer
The pole-dancer attended raunchy parties thrown by the 74-year-old prime minister in his private residence in Milan, where she claims he showered her with money and gifts, when she was just 17.
As Italian magistrates launched a probe into the premier's private life, Ruby became the pin-up girl for the Italian media's sensational coverage of rumoured orgies hosted by Berlusconi, with prostitutes and would-be showgirls.
Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, moved with her family to Letojanni, a small town in Sicily, in 2003. She lived with her hawker father, housewife mother and three younger siblings until running away from home at 14.
Already known in Letojanni for her tempestuous character and a tendency to commit petty theft, police entrusted the runaway to a series of care homes in Sicily and Genova from which she fled, according to media reports.
Apparently spotted by one of Berlusconi's cronies in a Milan discotheque, Ruby was called to entertain the prime minister by Nicole Minetti, an alluring ex-dental hygienist and regional representative for Berlusconi's party.
It was the prime minister's trusted aide Minetti who then helped get Ruby out of prison after she was arrested for alleged theft in May, when her housemate accused her of stealing 3,000 euros (4,000 dollars).
Berlusconi rang the police station and told officials to release her, claiming she was the niece of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and asking police to hand her over to Minetti, ostensibly to prevent diplomatic fallout.
But instead of accompanying Ruby home, Minetti turned her over to a Brazilian prostitute called Michelle.
The indignant leader later protested he had no idea that Ruby was not Mubarak's niece, claiming the story was part of a series of lies that the teenager had told him, including fibbing about her age.
The formal accusation announced on Tuesday is that Berlusconi paid Ruby for sex when she was under 18, illegal under Italian law, though both the minxy Moroccan and the aged premier deny having ever had sex.
By then the dark-haired, long-lashed girl had become the star of the scandal and appeared on several television channels protesting her innocence and telling the harrowing story of her troubled past.
In one interview, she cried as she told the presenter how she had been raped aged nine by two paternal uncles, but had been silenced by her mother who said "if your father finds out you're no longer a virgin he'll kill you."
In another part of the interview, Ruby said that despite her efforts, she had never had sex for money.
Reputedly pregnant and about to get hitched to fiance Luca Rizzo, a 41-year old manager of a disco, Ruby speaks affectionately of Berlusconi, whom she has described as a charitable but lonely man, forced to buy women's affection.
A star witness in Berlusconi's upcoming trial, Ruby has branched out from dancing into other lucrative pastimes, posing in her underwear for a television advert and making showbiz appearances in discotheques across the country.
Once married, she has said she hopes to study child psychology in Genova.
