Silvio Berlusconi started community service at a care home for the elderly near Milan.<br /><br />Four hours a week he will work with elderly dementia patients. <br /><br />The cameras were present as the billionaire began his year of community service.<br /><br />The former prime minister’s prison sentence for tax fraud was commuted to community service. For some there was a sense of public humiliation.<br /><br />“It’s something unique: a former prime minister, a three-time prime minister who ends up doing community service following the court verdict. Honestly I have never covered such an event, it is the first time,” one international journalist outside the care home explained.<br /><br />The former prime minister chose community service over house arrest in order to continue campaigning for his party in the European elections.<br /><br />A trade unionist dressed as a clown was held back as he tried to approach Berlusconi.<br /><br />“I want to tell Berlusconi, that we, Italian workers, have a dream in our heart: Berlusconi inside San Vittore jail, Berlusconi to San Vittore,” shouted Pippo Fiorito <br /><br />The 77-year-old was spared prison as the Italian legal system is lenient to the over-70s. The billionaire has been embroiled in a string of court cases. He has always denied the charges against him, accusing left-wing judges of a witch-hunt.
