DSK maid to file civil lawsuit for sex assault

The chambermaid behind charges of sexual assault against the former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a hotel in Manhattan three months ago yesterday filed a lawsuit against him alleging that he came at her from behind with "depravity in his heart".

The legal manoeuvre comes as prosecutors reassess their case against Mr Strauss-Kahn who was released from house arrest pending trial after doubts emerged over parts of her story about the encounter as well as the circumstances of her winning asylum in the US after leaving her native Guinea.

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo, has given interviews and made public appearances to bolster her version of what occurred in the suite of the Sofitel hotel. The lawsuit unveiled in a court in the Bronx yesterday, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, said that Mr Strauss-Kahn "intentionally, brutally and violently sexually assaulted Ms Diallo and in the process humiliated, degraded, violated and robbed Ms Diallo of her dignity as a woman". The experience, it added, "left Ms Diallo's life and her young daughter's life in shambles".

Mr Strauss-Kahn has denied wrongdoing and his lawyer has accused Ms Diallo of being motivated my money. His next court hearing is scheduled for 23 August. He is free on bail but barred from leaving the US.