To the unending frustration, disappointment and outrage of many observers the world over, including here at The Tatler, the news from the Dominique Straus-Kahn rape investigation in Paris just took a turn for the worse. The repugnant Romeo with an unerring eye for unwilling women, the former International Monetary Fund chief, has wiggled his odious way out of the defendant’s dock for a second consecutive time. His accuser, French novelist and journalist Tristane Banon, 32, had described the 62-year-old to French police as behaving toward her like a “rutting chimpanzee.” I don’t think she meant that as a compliment to his flawless technique.
Stauss Kahn’s sexual assault on Mademoiselle Banon took place in 2003, when he was 54 and she, 24. The following photographs may give you a hint of why she might have been less than thrilled by his unwanted attack:
While dropping rape charges against the jowly lout who mistakenly imagines himself an irresistible combination of Warren Beatty at his most enthralling and Jean-Paul Belmondo at his, the Parisian prosecutors nonetheless found sufficient evidence that Strauss-Kahn had committed the lesser offense of “sexual assault.” The problem for his French accuser is that the three-year statute of limitations has now expired on that charge.
According to The Daily Telegraph,
While Mr Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers argued that he had now been “completely cleared”, Ms Banon’s barrister David Koubbi said she had been “victorious” as Mr Strauss-Kahn was now an “unconvicted sex attacker.”
The serial sexual predator will still be held up to well-earned public ridicule because in his unbridled arrogance he made the double mistake of not only thrusting himself on an unwilling woman less than half his age, but of doing so on one who writes for a living. Big mistake. Huge. Her latest book, all about Strauss Kahn, is entitled The Hypocrites’ Ball (Le bal des hypocrites) and was first published in France yesterday. As The Telegraph reports:
Ms Banon has just written a book in which she refers to an alleged attacker as “the pig.” Ms Banon refers continually to the alleged crime in her 126-page book, but leaves out the name of the alleged attacker. This is a common tactic adopted by French authors as they try to avoid libel charges relating to what they have written. Despite this, publicity for the book makes it perfectly clear that the book is autobiographical.
In all the many news stories on the prosecutions of this egregious lout, the most vivid description that’s come to the attention of The Tatler was written by Corky Siemaszko, staff writer for The New York Daily News who nailed it when he called Strauss-Kahn a “loathsome Lothario.” A legendary re-write man, Mr. Siemaszko said it all and said it best in two succinct words. Bravo, Mr. Siemnaszko.
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