Berlusconi completes community service sentence

Former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, completed his community service sentence, yesterday.

Berlusconi, 78, had been ordered to spend four hours a week with elderly dementia patients after being found guilty of tax fraud in May last year.

Speaking to reporters at the Milan care home where he had been working, he said that he intends to continue to help at the home in his free time. "The time spent with the sick, with the volunteers, with the health and social workers, has been a moving experience," he said.

Legal battles continue to dog the three-time Italian leader, but he appeared to be in good spirits as he arrived for his final visit to the care home, where the former Italian PM would put the skills he had honed as a cruise ship entertainer to good use, serenading elderly residents during his service, according to reports in the Italian press.

Berlusconi is not out of the woods yet, however, as next week a court is due to review his acquittal for paying for sex with an underage prostitute and could result in a retrial.