BARI - The Judge of the State Council, Francesco Bellomo, has defended himself against allegations of advising female students to wear skimpy outfits to court and of sexually assaulting one of his pupils. The Judge works as a professor at a private school training future magistrates and has been accused of telling students to wear miniskirts and stiletto heels to the courtrooms and announce that they were unmarried. The prosecutors of Bari have launched an investigation following complaints made by the father of a student. The pupil has since led the opening proceedings against him by the Council of State.

 The professor has defended himself from the charges by saying that the facts have been misconstrued. According to Corriere della Sera, Bellomo said that “I am kept silent and until it is over I am not able to defend myself. False things have been written.” He has argued that his actions with a female student were entirely consensual.

 In an interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano, Bellomo argued that “justice is criticised and instead you find in front of you one who for 25 years has acted in a manner practically perfect. Once I leave the courtrooms I return a person free to express my ideas. Judge me as a man.”

 Bellomo has defended his advice to the female students as “it is a simplification. Mine is a scientific method of understanding the function of reason in human things. All the geniuses, even Einstein, have had to defend themselves from attacks of those who did not understand their ideas. I did not want to divulge mine, but they have come out. So why do you say that they don’t work? My [female] students and my [male] students have passed the competition more than any other course. And then the dress code is not what you have said.”