25 Jul 2011

Accuser of Strauss-Kahn goes public

10:49 pm on 25 July 2011

A woman who accused former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in a New York hotel suite, has given her first public account of the incident.

She told Newsweek magazine that because of Mr Strauss-Kahn, she was being called a prostitute but she is tellilng the truth.

''I want him to go to jail,'' she said. ''I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money.''

The woman was working as a maid at the hotel on 14 May when she says she was attacked in a suite on the 28th floor by a naked man with white hair.

She said she tried to leave, but he slammed the door and lunged at her.

The woman's credibility was earlier thrown into question when Manhattan prosecutors revealed she had previously told numerous lies, including fabricating a story about being gang-raped in Guinea in order to gain asylum in the United States.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, a politician known as DSK in France, has denied all charges arising from the incident.

He is due back in court in New York next Monday for the next hearing on seven charges of attempted rape and sexual assault.