Mother of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's French accuser had 'violent' sexual encounter with him

(AFP/GETTY IMAGES; AP)

The mother of the French woman who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape has told police that she also had a "violent" sexual encounter with him.

Anne Mansouret, 65, a Socialist politician in Normandy, told investigators that she had sex with the former French finance minister in his office in 2000. The encounter was consensual, she told police, but Mr Strauss-Kahn had acted "like a predator" and with the "obscenity of a common soldier".

Her evidence, leaked to the website of the respected new magazine L'Express, provides another extraordinary new twist in the "affaire DSK", as it has become known in France.

Ms Mansouret's daughter, Tristane Banon, 31, has brought a formal complaint that Mr Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape her when she was interviewing him for a book in 2003. According to evidence given to investigators last week by both women, Ms Mansouret persuaded her daughter not to make a legal complaint against the Socialist politician at the time. In a six-hour interview under oath, Ms Mansouret told police of her own sexual encounter with DSK.

According to L'Express, she said she had never revealed the incident to anyone. She said she wanted to contradict the impression, painted by Mr Strauss-Kahn's friends, that he was a seducer, but incapable of violence. Ms Mansouret described DSK to police as "a predator, a man who wants to take women, not to please them".

Police investigating the Banon case intend to question the front-running Socialist presidential candidate, François Hollande. Ms Banon said she had two conversations with Mr Hollande, who was then Socialist party leader, at the time of the alleged attack by DSK in March 2003.

Mr Hollande confirmed yesterday that at least one conversation had taken place. He said he had advised Ms Banon at the time to make a formal complaint.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, is to appear in court in New York early next month when a decision is expected on whether to pursue charges that he attempted to rape a chambermaid in May.