Strauss-Kahn subjected me to sex act against my will, woman tells court

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/11/dominique-strauss-kahn-sex-act-woman-french-court

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, has been confronted in court by a second woman who said he subjected her to a sex act against her will.

Strauss-Kahn is on trial in Lille on a charge of “aggravated pimping” – aiding and abetting the prostitution of seven women – which carries a possible 10-year prison term. The case against him is that, while holding the most senior economic job in the world in Washington, he had group sex with prostitutes brought to him in Europe and the US, organised by French businessmen friends at his instigation.

He strongly denies knowing the women were prostitutes and maintains he thought they were swingers like himself. He denies all pimping charges.

The court heard from Jade, a sex worker allegedly paid by business friends of Strauss-Kahn to attend group sex evenings.

Jade described how she had been booked to have sex with Strauss-Kahn at an orgy with him at a swingers’ club, The Tantra, in the Belgian countryside in autumn 2009.

She told the court that on arrival at the club she saw a scene she described as “butchery”, with about 40 people “all on a mattress on the floor”. She had been paid €500 upfront by two businessman friends of Strauss-Kahn but she said she did not want to take part in the group she saw having sex, so she had stayed at the bar.

Afterwards, a friend of Strauss-Kahn suggested Jade should give him and one of his girlfriends a lift back into Brussels – where Strauss-Kahn was staying for meetings – in her car.

Jade said that in the car she had chatted to Strauss-Kahn and his girlfriend, explaining to them that she worked under contract at a swingers’ bar where she was a stripper and that after her act she had sex on stage with a member of the audience whom she was allowed to choose herself.

She told the court that Strauss-Kahn said he would like to come to watch the act one day. Jade said that because she had been paid by a businessman to have sexual relations with Strauss-Kahn, she felt obliged to honour her part of the deal and upon arrival in Brussels, went up to his hotel room with him and his girlfriend.

She broke down in tears in court as the judge asked her to detail what happened in the room. “When I turned my back to Dominique Strauss-Kahn I was subjected to a penetration that I hadn’t been asked if I accepted,” she said. “To which I would have said no, because I didn’t want that.”

She added: “Every time I see his photo or meet him I relive that time, a time that ripped me apart inside because no other client would have dared to do that.”

Jade asked: “Does this person think they can do anything …because I didn’t have the same status as him?” She said she was in pain and that “I didn’t have time to say no.”

Asked if she thought Strauss-Kahn had been aware she was a prostitute, she said: “To inflict what he inflicted, he couldn’t have had much respect for me. I must have been an object for his consumption.”

Jade said she did not want the sex act to be named in court, but Strauss-Kahn’s barrister named it as “sodomy”.

Strauss-Kahn told the court he did not view his sexual encounter with Jade in the same way that she did. “I didn’t realise,” he said. “I’m not for doing things that are disagreeable for partners.” He said: “I had no way of knowing she didn’t want it … It wasn’t my intention, I’m sorry it happened like that.”

He was questioned by the judge who made reference to another woman, Mounia, who the previous day alleged that she was in tears and gesturing that she didn’t want to have anal sex with Strauss-Kahn but that when he realised her distress he smiled and went ahead anyway, “with force”.

Strauss-Kahn, who insisted on Tuesday that “when someone says no, it is no”, told the judge that he had regrettably discovered during this case that he had “a sexuality that was more rough than the average man”.

He added: “That in no way implies for me that there is any link with prostitution.”

He said he behaved the same sexually with all women, whether it was an unwitting encounter with a prostitute or not. He said the idea that his specific sexual preferences meant he needed recourse to prostitutes was “completely absurd”.

Questioned by one lawyer on his sexual behaviour, he shouted: “I’ve had enough!” He said: “My sexual practices, whether you appreciate them or not, do not concern this court.” He said he was not in court on any charge of perverted sexual practices.

In court, Jade insisted that Strauss-Kahn knew she was a prostitute, particularly after their conversation in her car when she talked about her paid job stripping and having sex in a club. She said Strauss-Kahn was simply trying to convince the court he was naive by not knowing women presented to him were paid.

Strauss-Kahn told the court he did not know Jade was a prostitute and that being an erotic dancer did not mean someone was a prostitute.

Strauss-Kahn was asked by one lawyer about women who said in court papers that they had “suffered” during sexual encounters with him. He replied that there were also many others quoted in the dossier who said he was “courteous”. He added: “People see things differently.” He said he could not tell if women were faking pleasure or not.

He told the court: “Prostitution is an attack on human dignity. I don’t like prostitution.”

Jade told how some months after the episode in the Brussels hotel room, she was approached by the same businessman friends of Strauss-Kahn to travel to Washington to meet the IMF chief for sex. She was offered €2,000. She said she needed the money as she had a €1,800 legal bill to pay.

Asked by the judge how she felt about returning to see Strauss-Kahn after the earlier exchange, she said: “I had reservations, but I saw it in euros. I said to myself I would have the strength to say I wouldn’t want certain things to happen again.”

She said that in Washington, Strauss-Kahn and a girlfriend joined her in her hotel room for sex but that after “the preliminaries” it had turned into a “fiasco” when Strauss-Kahn had suggested another woman join them and that woman had not wanted to. Jade said the atmosphere had soured and sex had not taken place.

While in Washington, Jade posed for a photograph with Strauss-Kahn in his IMF office. His lawyer told the court that Strauss-Kahn did not know Jade was a prostitute and he would never have posed for that picture if he had known that she was.

The trial continues.