Dominique Strauss-Kahn and rape bid accuser meet at police station - Telegraph

Quote:

Police are probing 32-year-old Miss Banon's complaint before prosecutors decide whether to press charges. The confrontation between accused and accuser is to take place without lawyers present. Such an encounter is common in French justice when two people in a case give different versions of events. The meeting could bring investigations to a close, after which the prosecutor could decide that there's no case, or that the alleged crime happened too long ago or that a prosecution is warranted. Miss Banon said on Saturday that she was afraid of meeting the man she says locked her in a bare Paris flat in 2003 and assaulted her. Miss Banon first made her allegations public on television in 2007, but only brought them to magistrates after a chambermaid at an upscale New York hotel accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault in May. Related Articles Face-to-face confrontation common in France 29 Sep 2011 Strauss-Kahn to confront French writer over rape claim 23 Sep 2011 Tristine Banon 'wants confrontation' with Strauss-Kahn 22 Sep 2011 The New York prosecutor's case collapsed last month after doubts emerged over the credibility of his accuser, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo, who is still seeking damages from a US civil court. Miss Banon accuses the former IMF chief of wrestling with her "like a rutting chimpanzee" after luring her into an unfurnished Paris flat on the pretext of offering her an interview for a book she was writing. Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, has admitted making "an advance" on Miss Banon, but denies any use of violence and has lodged a lawsuit for slander against the writer over her claim. Miss Banon's complaint is for attempted rape rather than sexual assault or harassment, and if the prosecutor decides to downgrade the charge Mr Strauss-Kahn would be protected by a statute of limitations on the lesser crimes. Miss Banon told a television interviewer last week that she was keen to confront her alleged abuser in front of police. "I want him in front of me so he can look into my eyes and say to my face that I imagined it," Banon said in the interview.

You can't help but wonder how you'd react in such a situation. Personally I'd have a protracted rant about how tasteless bloody farces like this never used to happen in the good old days of pistols at dawn, and hadn't the miserable woman got any dignity? Then, of course, I'd go down there and tell her to her face that she imagined it. Even if my original defence strategy had been something entirely different. I can never resist an outright provocation.

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