Daily Mail
A Vatican official involved in buying a landmark west London office block allegedly offered a businessman a prostitute as a thank you for brokering the £300 million deal, the High Court has heard.
Gianluigi Torzi acted as the middle man in negotiations over the property in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, which has been earmarked for development into luxury flats.
However, the 42-year-old claimed in written evidence that senior lay official Fabrizio Tirabassi tried to thank him for his work by offering sex with a woman, which he declined, while also making threats to the lives of him and his children, according to the Times.
Furthermore, he alleged that Tirabassi boasted of blackmailing senior clergymen and so reported the behaviour to Pope Francis.
The allegations came to light as a judge blasted Vatican prosecutors for making ‘appalling’ misrepresentations to the court about their probe into the Holy See’s investment into the real estate deal.
It had been alleged that Torzi, along with Tirabassi, senior cleric Monsignor Alberto Perlasca and London financier Raffaello Mincione, conspired to fleece the church jurisdiction out of millions in fees in negotiations, but Judge Tony Baumgartner last week reversed a decision to seize his bank accounts and awarded him legal fees.
The controversy led to a series of police raids, Tirabassi being suspended from his Vatican post, Perlasca being moved to a different role.
Mincione, the property’s previous owner, has strongly denied wrongdoing and has lodged two separate legal cases against the Holy See.
