Italy's supreme Cassation Court
said Wednesday it upheld prison sentences for rape against three
self-styled eating disorder specialists because their victims
did not consent to having sex with them, as the defence argued.
The Court on May 18 upheld convictions of rape and improper
exercise of the medical, psychological, dietary, and
psychotherapy professions against 71-year-old Waldo Bernasconi,
formerly known as the "anorexia guru" in Italian and Swiss
clinics, his right-hand man Piero Billari, founder of an
association to cure anorexia and bulimia called Forum Crisalide,
and Nigerian former actor George Durojaiye, aka Isaac George.
The three were found guilty of sexually abusing young and
vulnerable patients, one of whom subsequently committed suicide.
The investigation was sparked in 2009 by the contents of
the patient's diary, which revealed that the three coerced
patients by telling them to dress provocatively and to submit
sexually as a form of therapy, calling their favorite patients
"pure-bred horses".
The offenders told patients that "sexual activity was an
adequate tool to overcome the inhibitions connected to their
eating disorders", the Cassation judges wrote.
The abuses took place in the Sana Vita (Healthy Life)
clinic in Lugano, at a clinic in Como's Cascina Respaù, and in
other private so-called clinics in 2004-2006.
Some 400 former patients were contacted during the
investigation.
The Cassation Court upheld prison sentences of six months
six years for Bernasconi, four years three months for Billari,
and four years six months for Durojaiye.
Those sentences were handed down by a Milan court of
appeals on March 31, 2015.
Billari is reportedly in prison, while the other two are
abroad.
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