London - Dominique Strauss-Kahn took a prostitute to his office at the International Monetary Fund, where she posed for pictures on his desk, his trial heard on Wednesday.
The woman, named only as Jade, said she cavorted in the disgraced economist’s US headquarters and posed as a secretary after being paid £1 500 to fly there from Europe.
Strauss-Kahn and 13 others are on trial in Lille accused of “procuring with aggravating circumstances” or “aggravated pimping”. The 65-year-old admits having attended regular sex parties from 2008 to 2011, but denies knowing the women were prostitutes.
Jade claimed Strauss-Kahn had subjected her to a sex act against her will.
Asked why she had agreed to visit him in Washington in 2010, the 31-year-old former prostitute replied: “I did it for 2 000 euros. I wasn’t going to say no. I love travelling and I hadn’t seen Washington.
“We took photos of me on his desk, in his office there.”
But Strauss-Kahn told the French court he did not need to pay for sex because women found him attractive.
“I was one of the world’s most powerful men,” he said.
“Many people wanted to please me. Women have offered themselves to me ten times. It is nothing unusual to me.”
Losing his temper during further questioning, he said: “I’ve had enough. What is the point for the court in constantly going back to my sexual practices? I am not on trial for deviant sexual practices.”
Strauss-Kahn has denied knowing that women up to 40 years his junior who had sex with him in orgies in Paris, Brussels, Lille and Washington DC were prostitutes.
It was at one of these parties in a Brussels hotel suite that Jade claimed Strauss-Kahn performed the sex act without her permission - which she argued was a clear sign he knew she was being paid.
Weeping as she gave evidence, she told the court: “If I was a swinger, I would at least have been asked if I wanted to do that. If he had asked me I would have said no. He treated me like a whore.”
Strauss-Kahn told the court he did not know she had objected and was sorry for his mistake.
Jade said she was paid £370 to attend an orgy with Strauss-Kahn at the Tantra swingers club in Brussels, describing the scene as like “butchery” or a “massacre” with a “heap of writhing bodies”.
Estelle, another prostitute who gave evidence, said Strauss-Kahn and his co-accused “were not handsome men” so must have known she was a call girl.
On the first day of his trial Strauss-Kahn had said he attended around four parties each year and had no idea the women were being paid for sex.
He claimed they were willing to sleep with him.
However, when he gave further evidence on Wednesday he admitted he enjoyed “rougher sex than most men”. He said he disagreed with Jade’s description of events in Brussels, adding: “The sexual practices performed that night may not appeal to Jade but this does not imply that there were prostitutes. I just thought it would be fun to go to a swingers club.
“I came with a girlfriend, there were dozens of women at the club Tantra. Why did I need a prostitute on top of that?
“My sexual behaviour does not involve the need for prostitutes. I repeat that I don’t like prostitution. I am horrified at the practice of using prostitutes. Prostitution is an assault on women’s dignity.”
In a bizarre aside, he compared prostitutes attending such orgies to “flying fish” because although they “do exist – you don’t often see them”.
Strauss-Kahn has been dogged by claims of sexual assaults and misdemeanours.
He was sacked as head of the International Monetary Fund in May 2011 after being accused of trying to rape a maid at a New York hotel. The charges were dropped but he later paid the woman, Nafissatou Diallo, £4-million in a civil settlement.
A year later he was accused of having sexually abused a young French writer – allegations that were also dropped.
The prosecution is trying to show that Strauss-Kahn knew the women at the sex parties were call girls.
The trial is expected to last two more weeks and Strauss-Kahn faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to £1.1-million if convicted. Three topless feminist protesters were arrested after they threw themselves at the car driving Strauss-Kahn to court on Tuesday.
Before his fall from grace, he was a strong candidate to be the presidential nominee of the Socialist Party of France. Early polling had shown he could beat the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Daily Mail