Strauss-Kahn accused of forcing prostitute to perform against her will

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused at his trial in Lille of forcing a prostitute to perform sex acts against her will at a Brussels hotel.

Sandrine Vandenschrik told judges on Wednesday that Strauss-Kahn didn't give her a chance to refuse.

Another woman yesterday said that Strauss-Kahn forced her into an “animal” sex act.

“Every time I see his photo or see him, I revisit this impalement that tears me up inside because no other client would dare do that to me,” Ms Vandenschrik said.

He didn’t ask for my permission, “probably because I was a prostitute.”

Mr Strauss-Kahn and 13 other men are charged with hiring prostitutes for orgies in a case known as the ‘Carlton Affair’ for the name of the hotel in Lille where some of the sex parties took place.

Prosecutors are trying to introduce evidence that Strauss-Kahn was violent and forced women into acts, which would undermine his arguments that he didn’t know they were prostitutes.

The former head of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn said that he had no way of knowing Ms Vandenschrik wouldn’t consent and that the atmosphere was “friendly” after they had sex.

The 65 year-old is testifying for a second day for involvement in a sex scandal that spread across two continents.

Charges of sexual assault in a New York hotel room that were eventually dropped and a post-IMF business venture that ended in bankruptcy have tarnished the image of the Frenchman, who was once a leading contender for the presidency of France.

Ms Vandenschrik testified that she gave Strauss-Kahn a lift in her car from a swingers’ club in the Belgian countryside to Brussels.

She said she was in the hotel with him for three or four hours. She said they discussed the difference between French and Belgian prostitution laws and that she worked at a swingers’ club and was an exotic dancer.

In his testimony directly after Vandenschrik, Strauss-Kahn didn’t dispute the nature of the sex they had, but said he had no way of knowing that it wasn’t consensual. There was no exchange of money, he said.

Asked if her job as dancer at a sex club didn’t make him think she might be paid to go to bed with him, Strauss-Kahn said no. DSK conceded he may have a sexuality which is “rougher” than the average man.

“But I have the same sexual behavior with all the women I have met,” he said.

Agencies