France’s Hotel Carlton pimping trial hears about lives of prostitutes in Lille
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Version 0 of 1. The Hotel Carlton pimping trial in Lille has heard of the power exerted by older men and business figures over destitute women in the northern French city, some of whom had been abused as children, and who found themselves passed around men in hotel rooms, apartments and as the “dessert course” at business lunches. The trial is best known for one of its defendants, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, ex-head of the International Monetary Fund, who is accused of aiding and abetting prostitution by having group sex with paid women brought to him in Europe and the US by businessmen friends. He strongly denies the pimping charge, admitting group sex but saying he did not know women at the orgies were prostitutes. Before the trial turns its attention to Strauss-Kahn next week, judges have begun hearing the stories of prostitutes in Lille. One of the women, known as Jade, was a prostitute as part of the Hotel Carlton network in Lille before later being taken by businessmen. She says she was offered to Strauss-Kahn for orgies in Paris and Washington when he was head of the IMF – encounters she described as “carnage”. Described as having been the victim of child sexual abuse and having had a chaotic childhood, she told the court how she reluctantly turned to prostitution when she separated from her partner. “I opened the fridge, I knew there was going to be an inquiry into custody of the kids and I saw that the fridge was empty.” She dialled the number on a small ad. Her first encounter was a lorry driver. “I was scared to death.” She began to work in a brothel just over the Belgian border run by Dominique Alderweireld, also known as Dodo the Pimp, another defendant in the trial. She worked at night in a basement room in the brothel with her baby asleep in a nearby room. When she could, she would stop and get temping work. At the club she met Rene Kojfer, 70, the flamboyant head of public relations for the luxury Hotel Carlton. He is alleged to have passed financially needy women around prominent men – including a dentist, police chief, lawyers and hotel bosses – in Lille for sex. Referring to women as “dossiers”, he is said to have boasted of being able to “try them out” for free himself. With Kojfer, Jade and two other women would be taken to a flat adjoining the hotel where they met men. “There were sandwiches, a bottle of champagne. They had lunch. We were their dessert.” The men would choose a woman each for sex, usually paid €200. Once Kojfer said “times are hard” and paid only €120 or “a hotel bathrobe”. In tears, Jade described another business lunch at an Italian restaurant near Lille with various men, where Kojfer had brought women. “A young girl of 19 or 20 was drinking glass after glass. I told her to stop. She said: ‘Leave it, it helps me forget.’ The young girl went to the toilet and she didn’t come back. Everyone was going to the toilets so I went to look.” She described seeing the girl slumped on the ground, passed out, her underwear and trousers around her ankles. “The waiter arrived with a box of condoms. I don’t know how many men had her. I couldn’t help her.” Strauss-Kahn was not present at any of these scenes in Lille. It is suggested that Jade would later be taken by two different businessmen to “soirées” outside Lille with the IMF head. After evidence in court, Jade spoke to La Voix du Nord. “You have to be damaged, in terms of body and self-esteem, to get to that point of abandoning your body and profiting from it. It’s not easy money. It’s quick money but it’s not easy money. The scars, the marks, the cigarette burns, the smells, the comments of clients, all that comes back.” She said she was angry with two different Lille businessmen for later taking her to meet Strauss-Kahn. “Me, I didn’t know who he was. They didn’t warn me. I’m angry that they didn’t give me the choice to choose. Very sincerely I wouldn’t have taken the risk to go with that man if I’d known of the media earthquake.” She complained in court of having seen her real name appear in the media and wore a wig so the court artist’s images wouldn’t identify her. The court heard more about Kojfer’s alleged procuring of women. Once, aged 70, he had met an 18-year-old in the street in Lille and groomed and had sex with her. Surveillance showed him telling a contact on the phone. “It’s a school girl, 18. A bombshell. I can’t give you the “dossier” [code for girl] straight away but I’ll put it aside.” He had introduced a 20-year-old victim of domestic violence into prostitution, telling the court he was “helping” her. He was well connected to the local police. One woman, who he had introduced to friends for paid sex, refused a sex act with him for free, so he called his friends in the vice squad on her. All 14 people accused of pimping, and some of fraud, deny the charges. |