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Dominique Strauss-Kahn tells pimping trial he is 'rougher' than normal men after prostitute tells court he had forced anal sex with her

Former French minister has admitted taking part in sex orgies at which prostitutes were present

John Lichfield
Wednesday 11 February 2015 05:18 EST
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Dominique Strauss Kahn leaves his hotel on his way to the Court Hous in Lille
Dominique Strauss Kahn leaves his hotel on his way to the Court Hous in Lille (EPA/YOAN VALAT)

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the Lille pimping trial today that he accepted that he had a “rougher” form of sexuality than most men.

The former IMF chief was asked to explain why two ex-prostitutes had told the court that he had subjected them to “brutal” experiences of anal sex.

“I think I must have a form of sexuality which is rougher than the average,” Mr Strauss-Kahn replied. “I am beginning to realise that and I deplore it. But I had no idea at the time that these experiences were so unpleasant as the women now say.”

Mr Strauss-Kahn was responding to allegations by a former Belgian prostitute called Jade that he had anal sex with her without asking her permission in a Brussels hotel in 2009. Mr Strauss-Kahn said that he admitted that this “episode” had taken place.

It was, he said, the “afters” following a visit to a swingers’ club in the Belgian countryside. He said he had no idea that Jade was a prostitute – even though he accepted that she had told him she worked in a sex club.

Mr Strauss-Kahn said that he had a “three way” sexual encounter with Jade and an unnamed “girlfriend” in the Brussels hotel. With both women, he said, he had performed the same sexual act.

“If Jade was so upset as she now tells us, why diid she stay and chat and drink coffees with others afterwards,” Mr Strauss-Kahn asked.

Pressed on his behaviour, Mr Strauss-Kahn lost his temper for the first time since his testimony began on Tuesday. “I’m beginning to have enough of all this,” he said. “Everyone has the right to have an opinion on the nature of my sexual behaviour in private but it has nothing to do with this trial.”

He added: “My sexual behaviour does not impose the necessity of prostitutes,” DSK said. “I will say again that I don’t like prostitution…Prostitution is an infringement of the human liberty of women.”

Earlier, Jade said she had been subjected to unwilling anal sex by the disgraced former IMF chief,

She said the incident happened at the Amigo hotel in Brussels in club in Autumn 2009. She said that she had driven Mr Strauss-Kahn in her car to the hotel from a sex-club in the Belgian countryside.

“There was a moment which was more than unpleasant,” she said. “When I was lying with my back to Monsieur DSK, I suffered a penetration. If he had asked me, I would have said no. I didn’t like that.”

A court sketch of Dominique Strauss-Kahn testifying at Lille’s courthouse
A court sketch of Dominique Strauss-Kahn testifying at Lille’s courthouse (Getty Images)
A topless Femen activist jumps on the car carrying former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrives for his trial in Lille
A topless Femen activist jumps on the car carrying former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrives for his trial in Lille (Getty)

Jade said the incident proved that Mr Strauss-Kahn knew she was a prostitute because he treated her like an object. “Unless, somehow, he thinks he is on a different level to the rest of us and he can do anything that he wants.”

Mr Strauss-Kahn claims that he did not know the women who attended sex parties that he is accused of organising were prostitutes. Jade told the court he must have known. She said that they had discussed prostitution in Belgium during their car journey. She had made it clear that she worked in a sex club.

Jade said that during an official “confrontation” with DSK during the investigation which led to the trial, the former IMF chief had apologised for the incident in the Amigo hotel. She said that DSK said that he had not realised it had not been “cool” for her.

She admitted to the court, however, that she had accepted €2,000 to go to Washington to take part in a sex party with DSK the following January. While there, she had been invited to DSK's office at the IMF and had taken photographs.

There were angry scenes at the trial after one of DSK’s lawyers used the word “sodomy”.

Responding to a question from Frédérique Beaulieu, Mr Strauss -Kahn's defence lawyer, as to whether she thought certain sexual practices were reserved for prostitutes, Jade replied: “With a swinger, you at least ask the question. I was impaled and he didn’t ask at all and I think it was because I was a prostitute.”

Ms Beaulieu then asked a question using the word “sodomy”. Jade reacted angrily from the stand, shouting that she did not want that word used “because I don’t want all my family and friends to know what was done to me".”

The president of the court said Jade had herself made it abundantly clear what happened. She refused, all the same, to answer any other questions from Ms Beaulieu. One of DSK’s other lawyers, Richard Malka, took over.

The trial continues

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