Marco Borsato denies child sex abuse allegations; Says victim saw him as "father figure"

Marco Borasato “emphatically” denied the allegations against him at the start of the child sex abuse case against the singer. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) Suspects Borsato of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl. “This did not happen,” the singer said, claiming that he treated the child like his own children, and she saw him as a “father figure.”

The OM accuses the singer of indecent acts with a 15-year-old girl from September 2014 to January 2015. The indictment alleges that Borsato repeatedly touched the child on her thighs, breasts, and vagina, both over and under her clothing. He is also accused of making the girl touch his genitals. The girl is the daughter of the woman who chaired Borsato’s fan club for many years.

The court confronted Borsato with the victim’s statements, and he said the allegations affected him deeply. “I’ve dedicated 20 years to children around the world who are uncared for, and then I supposedly did this?” said the man, a former War Child Ambassador. “You can melt down wax figures of me, remove memorial tiles from the sidewalk, and ban my music from the radio, but this strikes at the very core of who I am. I didn’t do what I’m accused of. I had to wait six years to have my say, and I’m glad I’ll have the opportunity to do so in court.”

Borsato said he treated the girl as he treated his own children and that she saw him as a father figure. “She lacked a father figure,” Borsato said. Her father died by suicide. “She often came to sit on my lap. That attitude never changed, not even in her teenage years.” According to Borsato, the girl is “enthusiastic, but very impressionable.”

Borsato is a “warm-blooded, cuddly person,” he said. “That’s the way it is in my work. I try to minimize the distance between myself and my audience. And I’m Italian,” he said. “We snuggle, as is customary in Italian families, also with men.”

The singer’s lawyers are seeking an acquittal in the case, lawyer Carry Knoops told the assembled press before the hearing started. “We are definitely going for an acquittal. With sound arguments.”