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Anne Mansouret, 65, a socialist politician, said Mr Strauss-Kahn had seduced her with the “obscenity of a brutish soldier” in their lone sexual encounter 10 years ago.
She said they had intercourse in an office in Paris belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development where the former Socialist presidential hopeful then worked as a senior adviser.
Miss Mansouret’s allegations came days after her daughter, Tristan Banon, 32, filed a legal complaint against Mr Strauss-Kahn for attempted rape.
She claimed that the incident took place in 2003. Miss Banon, then aged 24, said Mr Strauss-Kahn lunged at her like a “rutting chimpanzee” in a Paris flat near the French parliament where she had gone to interview him.
When later confronted by his second wife, who is Miss Banon’s godmother, Mr Strauss-Kahn is said to have confessed: “I don’t know what came over me.
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“I had sex with the mother — but I blew a fuse when I saw the daughter.”
Mr Strauss-Kahn currently faces charges in New York for the attempted rape of a hotel chambermaid in May.
The latest development came as it emerged that François Hollande, the current front-runner to become the Socialist candidate for next year’s presidential elections, is to be heard as a witness in the Banon case.
The lawyer for Miss Banon said she had told Mr Hollande about the alleged incident in 2003 when he was first secretary of the party, raising questions as to how much he knew and whether he should have begun an inquiry.
Contrary to her lawyer’s recent assertion, Miss Banon told police she had “no material proof to back up her claims”, Le Monde newspaper reported. The Banon and Strauss-Kahn cases have damaged the Socialist Party and observers say they threaten to poison the run-up to the presidential election in April.
Mr Hollande denied speaking directly to Miss Banon about the alleged incident but told Le Monde newspaper that her mother had contacted him and he had suggested the police should be contacted if there was a problem. “I’ve nothing to hide and nothing to feel uneasy about,” he is quoted as saying. “But I will not allow this case to be exploited politically.” Mr Hollande is likely to be questioned weeks before the party primaries begin in October.
French police are questioning several people with links to the case in a preliminary investigation to establish whether a full inquiry is justified.
These include Mr Strauss-Kahn’s daughter from his second marriage, Camille, who was interviewed on Monday. Her mother, Brigitte Guillemette, was questioned on Friday.
According to l’Express magazine, which leaked the testimony, Miss Mansouret told police last week that she broke her silence about her encounter to dismiss claims that Mr Strauss-Kahn was an “inveterate seducer and ladies’ man, yes, capable of violence, no.”
On the contrary, she claimed he was “a predator who seeks not to please [women] but to take [them], behaving with the obscenity of a brutish soldier”. His “sexual need sparked a process of domination,” she reportedly added.
Miss Mansouret said she had at the time of the allegations by her daughter approached Mr Strauss-Kahn’s second wife, Mrs Guillemette, who later challenged him over the alleged attack.
Miss Banon decided not to press attempted rape charges because a senior magistrate told her the case would fail.
In her interview with police, leaked to Le Monde newspaper yesterday, Miss Banon said she did not press for charges out of “fear of not being believed”.
She said that she changed her mind after Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York on May 14.
In fresh details about the alleged attack, she said she tried to fend off Mr Strauss-Kahn by mocking his lazy eye and mentioning his daughter, Camille, but he was in a “trance-like state” and didn’t hear her cries of protest.
Mr Strauss-Kahn has denied the attack and launched legal action against Miss Banon for defamation.
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