Maid breaks silence on DSK 'sex attack' and says: Jail him

The maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan hotel room today broke her silence and said: "I want him to go to jail."

Nafissatou Diallo spoke out after the case against the former IMF chief looked set to collapse over questions about her reliability.

Ms Diallo, 32, told Newsweek that Strauss-Kahn grabbed and attacked her and she begged him to stop: "I said, 'Sir, stop this. I don't want to lose my job.' He said: 'You're not going to lose your job.' I push him. I get up. I wanted to scare him."

Strauss-Kahn, 62, denies attempted rape and other charges. His lawyers called the interview "an unseemly circus" designed to inflame public opinion.

They claimed that she had lied about her life story and was not consistent about her actions immediately after the alleged attack.

This is the first time that Ms Diallo has been named publicly after she rebuffed requests to speak out. The case against Strauss-Kahn is in limbo after New York prosecutors raised doubts about the housekeeper's overall credibility.

Diallo said that she wants Strauss-Kahn to be held accountable, and she had gone public to tell a story she has never altered. "It never changed. I know what this man do to me," she told the magazine, adding that she wanted to counter what she felt were misleading portrayals. "Because of him they call me a prostitute. I want him to go to jail. I want him to know there are some places you cannot use your power, you cannot use your money."

Strauss-Kahn, widely seen as a potentially successful French presidential candidate before his arrest, was pulled from an aircraft on May 14. He resigned as managing director of the IMF over the allegations. After being granted $1 million bail he was kept under house arrest, a restriction that has since been lifted.

Erin Duggan, Manhattan District Attorney's communications chief, said the investigation was continuing.