Friday 27 May 2011

Awaiting trial in luxury

I've been oddly drawn to prison programmes of late; Strangeways on ITV and Louis Theroux's excellent, shocking BBC documentary of a Miami mega jail, where inmates awaiting trial are 20 to a cell and regularly beat one another up, sexually assault those weaker and so on and so forth. Crimes range from driving while on a suspended sentence to robbery, rape, murder, all sorts.

Over in New York, Dominque Strauss Kahn, ex IMF boss is also awaiting trial for alleged sexual assault on a hotel chambermaid. He has avoided a similar experience to his poorer Miami peers and has been holed up in a luxury flat complete with spa and gym, according to the Metro. Alright for some ey?

His lawyers are arguing Kahn is not guilty and the sex was consensual... Of course of course, which is why cases over here get thrown out of court for 'lack of evidence'. I hope the laws are somewhat stricter stateside but who knows if comfortable detention like this for the wealthy is anything to go by.

Next to this article in the paper, an "Italian porn star" says she met Kahn a few years ago. "She said he was just a 'libertine'," quotes the paper, "who did not need to rape women "because he can pay for an escort or go to a club."

Oh dear, let's hope the courts recognise that sexual assault and rape is never about sex but about power and control and possibly for Kahn, given the number of women coming out about him now, the thrill of getting away with it.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/864521-dominique-strauss-kahn-lands-luxury-8m-town-house-prison-in-new-york

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