Graphic account of IMF boss's 'sex attack' on hotel maid told to New York courtroom as he is held in isolation unit at Rikers Island



Indictment accuses Strauss-Kahn of forcing maid to perform sex acts

Bank chief sent to notorious Rikers Island



Denied bail despite lawyers offering $1million bond

Prosecutors working to verify reports of at least one other case, which they suggested was overseas

French lawmaker Michael Debre accused Strauss-Kahn of victimising other maids in past stays at same hotel



He could now face up to 25 years in prison for alleged attack on hotel maid

Claims he was having lunch with daughter at the time of alleged attack



Second woman accuses him of sex attack in Paris ten years ago



Wife has 'no doubt' he's innocent

IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was tonight in an isolation cell at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail after he was denied $1m bail on charges that he raped a hotel maid.

Today prosecutors revealed graphic details of Strauss-Kahn’s alleged brutal sex attack on the New York hotel maid at a bail hearing in front of a female judge at Manhattan's criminal court.

Looking haggard and wearing the previous day's clothes Strauss-Kahn, 62, who should have been meeting with European finance ministers in Brussels, stood at the bench next to his lawyer Benjamin Brafman as prosecutors outlined the severity of the charges against him.

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Sent down: Strauss-Kahn, right, and lawyer Benjamin Brafman stand before judge Melissa Jackson in Manhattan Criminal Court

Denied bail: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, waits to be arraigned

Charges: Strauss-Kahn looks despondent as he is sent to jail over an alleged sex assault



These include two counts of a first degree criminal sexual act, two counts of sexual abuse, attempted rape, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.



A one-page indictment provided further lurid claims, accusing Strauss-Kahn of forcing the maid to take part in both oral and anal sex.



DSK: THE CHARGE SHEET

Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, a class B violent felony, two counts



Attempted Rape in the First Degree, a class C violent felony, one count

Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a class D violent felony, one count

Unlawful Imprisonment in the Second Degree, a class A misdemeanour, one count

Forcible Touching, a class A misdemeanor, one count

Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, a class B misdemeanour, one count

(N.B. A class B violent felony is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

A class C violent felony is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

A class D violent felony is punishable by up to 7 years in prison.

A class A misdemeanour is punishable by up to one year in jail. A class B misdemeanour is punishable by up to three months in jail. )



The court papers claim he forcibly touched the woman’s breasts, twice 'forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant’s mouth' and 'engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion'.



It took 20 minutes for Judge Melissa Jackson to refuse Strauss-Khan's bail offer of $1million at the hearing this morning.



He had also offered for all his travel documents to be confiscated in the potential deal, his lawyer Brafman said.

Judge Jackson said she was a 'fair judge' but added: 'When I hear your client was at JFK airport about to board a flight that raises concern,' with reference to the Air France flight.

Assistant District Attorney John A McConnell had earlier called Strauss-Khan an 'incurable flight risk' and voiced the DA's concerns that if he managed to flee to France the U.S. would not be able to extradite him.

He called the charges severe and said 'the victim provided a very powerful and detailed account' of the alleged attack and had had a full sexual assault examination in hospital.

The maid, a Guinean immigrant, told authorities that when she entered Strauss-Kahn's suite to clean it on Saturday afternoon, he emerged naked from the bathroom and chased her down a hallway before pulling her back inside.

The maid claims she then briefly fought him off before he dragged her into the bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

The woman said she was able to break free again as he tried to remove her underwear and ran downstairs to tell hotel staff what had happened.

After Strauss-Kahn rang to recover his mobile phone, which he had left in his room, detectives were able to find him at John F Kennedy airport.

Facing a possible 20 years: Strauss-Kahn, center, is marched into the Municipal Court before daybreak this morning

Accused: International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn, ahead of today's court hearing

Rikers Island: The IMF boss had been put on suicide watch here earlier this week after saying something that triggered fears

RIKERS ISLAND PRISION

From a $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel Hotel to a lonely cell at Rikers Island prison - it’s a bit of a come down by anyone’s standards.

But that is what disgraced IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Khan is facing tonight after he was refused $1million bail at Manhattan’s Criminal Court house this morning.

Rikers, a 415-acre complex of 10 prisons, is tucked away on an island between Queens and the Bronx.

It houses some 14,000 male and female prisoners at any one time, employs 10,000 officers and costs the New York tax payer $860million a year to run.

The jail facilities are for temporary inmates or those serving city sentences of one year or less. Previous occupants have included

Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon, and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicous, who spent 55 days there for assault. Rapper Foxy Brown also spent time there for assault.

They have two options for inmates. They either stay in barracks-style dorms with rows of beds or they are in a single cell on their own.

Strauss-Khan is being housed in the West Facility of the complex in single cell on his own, according to a prison spokesman.

The wing ordinarily houses inmates who have 'contagious diseases.'

But the spokesman said it was the best place for officers to be able to give him the most protection from other inmates.

He will eat eat his meals alone and spend his recreation time alone, he added.

In essence Strauss-Khan is in solidarity confinement.



He was pulled off an Air France flight just a few minutes before it was due to take off.

Indicating that there 'may be' forensic evidence in the suite supporting the maid’s claims, Mr McConnell added that he had seen CCTV video footage of Strauss-Kahn leaving the hotel.



He appeared to be 'a man who was in a hurry', he said.

Mr Brafman, who defended Michael Jackson from child molestation charges, and has also defended Sean 'P Diddy' Combs, argued that it was ‘simply wrong’ to disallow his client bail.



He has no previous criminal record and has a daughter who lives in New York who he was prepared to stay with, he said.



He is not planning to leave New York city and was ‘probably the most easily identifiable person in the world today,' he added.

Mr Brafman also argued that if Strauss-Khan had appeared in a hurry it was because he had had a prior lunch engagement with his daughter - a a graduate student at Columbia University - before his Air France flight to Germany, which he added had been booked before the alleged incident.



Strauss-Khan had co-operated ‘completely’ with police requests, Mr Brafman said before adding that all of these aspects were not ‘consistent with someone who has something to hide.’



On top of offering to post a $1 million bail, Mr Brafman argued that his client would give up all his travel documents and said he would be able to stay with his daughter in New York.

He added that Strauss-Khan's wife, the French journalist and millionaire heiress Anne Sinclair, was due to arrive in New York yesterday and had wired the bail funds through to a US bank account.



Outside court, Mr Brafman said they were 'disappointed' by the court’s decision.



‘Mr Strauss-Khan is innocent of theses charges,' he said. 'It is a very defensible case. It is his intention to try and clear his name. This case has just begun.'



Strauss-Khan, dubbed the 'Great Seducer' by the French media, will now be housed in 'protective custody' at the prison's West Facility in a cell on his own, a spokesman for the jail told MailOnline.



He will eat eat his meals alone and spend his recreation time alone, he added.

Hold the front page: Strauss-Khan's picture graced the cover of several of the world's national newspapers

The disgraced banker was supposed to appear in court yesterday but the hearing was postponed until this morning after Strauss-Khan's lawyers said their client had agreed to undergo some 'scientific tests.'



He was reportedly being searched for scratches and traces of his accuser's DNA at the unit, where prisoners are served meals costing $1.80 .

The allegations against the IMF boss have torn France's presidential race asunder and savaged the reputation of the suave and self-assured Strauss-Kahn.



He has topped opinion polls for months as the man most likely to become the nation's next president, consistently outshining the little-loved conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Scene of the alleged attack: The Sofitel New York in the heart of the city's theatre district

Scene: One of the luxury suites at the Sofitel New York

Scene: The hotel room door and the corridor where the IMF boss is said to have chased the maid

Court: The public and the media braved the rain outside Manhattan Criminal Court to see IMF chief Strauss-Kahn make his first appearance on sex assault charges

French author Tristane Banon, now 31, also spoke out today to claim Strauss Khan forcefully tried to seduce her ten years ago in Paris, allegedly leaving her having to fight him off physically.

At the time, her mother, Anne Mansouret, a regional socialist official in Normandy, said she advised her daughter against pursuing a claim at the time.

A French lawmaker from a rival political party also alleged, without offering evidence, that Strauss-Kahn had victimized several maids during past stays at the Sofitel near Times Square.



The hotel issued a statement calling conservative lawmaker Michel Debre's claims 'baseless and defamatory'. Sofitel management 'has had no knowledge of any previous attempted aggressions', the hotel said, adding that it had set up a hotline for workers to report incidents more than a year ago.



McConnell, the assistant district attorney, said in court Monday that New York authorities are working to verify at least one other case of 'conduct similar to the conduct alleged'.



When the judge asked whether the potential other incident occurred in the United States, McConnell said he 'believed that was abroad'.



Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they had no immediate response to the allegations emerging from overseas.



In France, for some, the arrest spells the end of his presidential ambitions and even his political career; others warned that it was too early to judge a man who denies wrongdoing; and still others suspected a plot to blacken his name just as France's presidential campaign heats up for the April 2012 first-round vote.

French voters are famously tolerant of political leaders' extramarital affairs. The allegations against Strauss-Kahn are entirely different, and much more serious.

Many politicians have fallen after being caught in extramarital affairs and others have survived them, including former U.S. presidents John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton as well as former French President Francois Mitterrand.

In handcuffs: Strauss-Kahn is escorted from a New York police station on Sunday, where he submitted to a DNA examination

Delay: William Taylor, right, and Benjamin Brafman, left, attorneys for Mr Strauss-Kahn, talk to the press outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Sunday night

Haunted figure: With his hands clearly bound behind him as he is led to a waiting car, Strauss-Kahn looks as if the full enormity of his situation has struck him



'SHE'S A SWEET LADY': HIS ALLEGED VICTIM

The victim of the alleged sex assault is a single mother and ‘a sweet lady', a friend said.

The African American woman, who is thought to be originally from Ghana, is ‘reserved and quiet’, the friend claimed.

‘She has been at the hotel for about four years and is well liked - I think she is a single mum and just does her work quietly and goes home.

'I think she will be back to work at some point’. A hotel source said the woman was 32 years old and that her work had always been 'very satisfactory'.

The friend said the alleged victim is black and about 6ft tall with dark hair. She works on the top floor as a room attendant. That position earns a mere $23,000 a year - worlds away from the salary of the IMF chief. Rarely have senior figures faced brutal assault charges like those filed against Strauss-Kahn. Police made the revelations as Strauss-Kahn's wife said she ‘does not believe for a second’ the allegations made against her husband. Anne Sinclair, 63, a French journalist, made it clear she would be sticking by the 62-year-old. Calling for ‘decency and restraint’ in the scandal's coverage, she said: ‘I don't believe for one second the accusations made against my husband. I have no doubt that his innocence will be established.’ It was not clear why Strauss-Kahn was in New York. The IMF is based in Washington D.C. and he was due in Germany yesterday. The IMF said Strauss-Kahn had been in New York on private business.

Christine Boutin, president of the Christian Democrat Party, suggested Strauss-Kahn may have been set up.

'I think it's very likely a trap was set for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and he fell into it,' she told France's BFM television. 'It's a political bomb for domestic politics.'





Dogged by scandal: Strauss-Kahn is seen with his wife and leading French journalist Anne Sinclair ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GENIUS DOGGED BY SCANDAL

1949: Dominique Strauss-Kahn is born in Neuilly, west of Paris, on April 25 1955: Moves with family to Agadir, Morocco 1960: Family moves to Monaco after earthquake kills 30,000 1967: Marries Hélène Dumas, the first of three wives 1976: Joins the Socialist party

1984: Marries Brigitte Guillemette 1986: Is elected to parliament

1991: Is appointed his first government post, as industry minister. Also marries his third wife - U.S.-French heiress Anne Sinclair, a high-profile TV politcal interviewer 1995: Becomes mayor of Sarcelles, a working-class immigrant suburb of Paris 1997: Is appointed French finance minister as his wife quits her job to support his career 1999: Resigns after he's embroiled in Socialist party funding scandal. He is later acquitted 2002: The first dent in their marriage as he's accused of advancing on a writer named Tristane Banon 'like a chimpanzee on heat'. She claimed she had to fend him off with kicks and punches 2007: Is named managing director of the IMF, but his victory is tainted by growing rumours about his private life, including a claim he was seen leaving a Parisian wife-swapping club 2008: No longer a rumour: DSK is forced into a humiliating public apology to both his wife and employees after an affair with Piroska Nagy, a Hungarian employee. The IMF slaps him on the wrist 2010: An explosive book is released by an anonymous woman claiming to be one of his female aides, alleging multiple affairs. French press claims he was warned by his old nemesis Nicolas Sarkozy to 'avoid taking the lift alone with interns. France cannot permit a scandal' May 14, 2011: DSK is arrested and charged with sexual assault on a New York hotel mai Strauss-Kahn had been considered a leading contender to run on the Socialist Party ticket against President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s French elections. On Saturday far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen said his bid for the top job was now 'doomed'. A French government spokesman said it was important to remain cautious and reserve judgment over the arrest of Strauss-Kahn. 'We have to be extremely prudent in analysis, comments and consequences,' he told France 2 television. The spokesman added that the government's position was to respect the presumption of innocence.

Strauss-Kahn has been dogged by scandal. In 2008 he was embroiled in controversy over accusations that he had had a sexual relationship with one of his subordinates, Piroska Nagy, senior official in the IMF’s Africa Department. The IMF hired a law firm to launch an investigation. Ms Nagy left the fund and joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He was cleared of harassment, favouritism and abuse of power following an inquiry - and kept his job, though he later apologised for an ‘error of judgement’. Strauss-Kahn, who was rejected by the French Socialists as their presidential candidate in 2006, gained international recognition as France’s finance minister from 1997-99. He is credited with preparing France for the adoption of the euro by reducing its deficit and persuading then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to sign up to an EU pact of fiscal prudence. A former economics professor, Strauss-Kahn joined the Socialist party in 1976 and was elected to parliament in 1986 from the Val-d’Oise district, north of Paris. He went on to become mayor of Sarcelles, a working-class immigrant suburb of Paris. Hours before Strauss-Kahn was pulled from the flight, a close Socialist Party ally claimed he was the target of a smear campaign by French President Sarkozy. 'There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign, which has already been announced by Mr Sarkozy and his closest allies, to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn,' Socialist politician Jean-Marie Le Guen told Europe 1 radio. Formed at the end of World War II, the IMF provides low-cost loans to countries in financial crisis. After 2008, it became increasingly significant after brokering rescue packages for countries like Greece, Pakistan, Iceland, Hungary and Ukraine.

Residence: A house of Strauss-Kahn in Washington D.C.

France faces 'political earthquake' as DSK's presidential dreams are dashed... throwing elections into turmoil



Long-time rival: French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of leading a smear campaign against Strauss-Kahn

France could face a 'political earthquake' after the arrest of presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The brilliant economist had been widely tipped to replace unpopular President Sarkozy as head of state.

He was seen as the strongest potential challenger to the conservative Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections, despite not announcing his candidacy.

Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up.



The allegations over his arrest in New York dominated special editions of Paris newspapers and there was also blanket coverage on TV and radio.

It is unclear how damaging the allegations could be. A poll for Le Parisien gave him 41 per cent of the votes among supporters of the Socialist Party.

'At the top of the polls,' Strauss-Kahn tweeted proudly in French last December, linking an article that showed him ahead in opinion polls when French voters were asked whom they would choose in a primary.

At a soccer game in a Washington suburb last September, he, his wife and others were seen wearing T-shirts that read, 'Yes we Kahn'.

Strauss-Kahn also noted that he trailed only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on a list of 100 'global thinkers' compiled last November by Foreign Policy magazine.



He was cited for his 'steely vision at a moment of crisis' - for convincing Germany to help bail out Greece's debt-laden government, and for helping to put the brakes on defaults in Hungary, Pakistan and Ukraine.

The arrest could throw the long-divided Socialists back into disarray about who they could present as Sarkozy's opponent. Even some of his adversaries were stunned.

'It's totally hallucinating. If it is true, this would be a historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life,' said Dominique Paille, a political rival to Strauss-Kahn on the centre right, on BFM television.

Still, he urged, 'I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair.'

Candidates need to announce their intentions this summer to run in fall primary elections.

'If he's cleared, he could return - but if he is let off only after four or five months, he won't be able to run' because the campaign will be too far along, said Jerome Fourquet of the IFOP polling agency.



'I think his political career is over,' Philippe Martinat, who wrote a book called DSK-Sarkozy: The Duel, told The Associated Press.



'Behind him he has other affairs ... I don't see very well how he can pick himself back up.'

What now for the Euro? How DSK is pivotal to Europe's debt woes

Debt crisis: A protester prepares to throw a petrol bomb towards policemen during riots in front of the parliament in Athens in February this year over austerity cuts

An economics professor and former French finance minister, Strauss-Kahn took over the IMF in November 2007 for a five-year term, and won praise for helping to galvanize leaders to inject billions of dollars into the world economy during the global financial crisis.

He introduced sweeping changes to ensure vulnerable countries swamped by the crisis had access to emergency loans, and others to give major emerging market countries such as China, India and Brazil greater voting powers in the IMF.

Witty, multi-lingual, a skilled public speaker and sharp back-room negotiator, Strauss-Kahn also weighed into thornier issues by urging China to let its currency rise in a dispute with the United States.

A crisis of leadership at the Fund now will especially worry European nations given Strauss-Kahn's pivotal role in brokering bail-outs for Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

'The chances are the successor won't be a European, and will want to rebalance the IMF's priorities away from its massive commitment in Europe,' said Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Bruegel economic think-tank.

Strauss-Kahn had been due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and join euro zone finance ministers on Monday to discuss the bloc's debt crisis and how to handle Greece, which is struggling to meet the terms of a 110 billion euro European Union/IMF bailout last year.

'This might definitely cause some delays in the short term,' a Greek official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.



