Strauss-Kahn calls sexual encounter with NY hotel maid a ‘moral failing’

Paris: Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has finally broken his silence on the recent sex assault scandal that crippled his political career, by describing his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid as a ‘moral failing,’ and admitting that he would always ‘regret’ the incident.

During an interview on French television, Strauss-Kahn stressed that he used ‘no violence, constraint or aggression’ against the maid, who accused him of sexually assaulting her, but admitted that he ‘will always regret it.’ The 63-year-old was, however, accused of ‘trying to dodge the tough questions’ by presenter Claire Chazal, who is a close friend of his wife, Anne Sinclair, the Daily Mail reports. When asked what happened in the suite at the Sofitel hotel on May 14, Strauss-Kahn insisted that he used no violence against the maid, and that the whole incident was a ‘moral fault’. “What happened involved neither violence, nor constraint, nor aggression, nor any other wrongful act. What happened was not only inappropriate relations, but a fault. It was a moral fault that I am not proud of. I will always regret it,” the paper quoted Strauss-Kahn, as saying. He further said that he had ‘no intention of negotiating’ with 32-year-old Nafissatou Diallo over her civil action against him. Strauss-Kahn also agreed with Chazal that the incident could have been a set-up, the paper said. He even admitted that the scandal has affected his presidential ambitions, saying that he has ‘now missed his appointment with the French people.’ ANI