Paris AFP - Carole was drugged, raped by three men, filmed and threatened at the outset of her three-year descent into the hell of prostitution -- a form of "modern-day slavery" she eventually managed to escape. As the pimping trial involving former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Belgian brothel owner "Dodo the Pimp" and others enters its second week, Carole told AFP the highly-publicised event has brought all her worst nightmares back to life.
The year-old, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, used to run her own company. But when it went bankrupt, she said she was contacted "to serve champagne" to small business owners in bars in Belgium. But she says she was drugged, raped by three men and filmed.
They showed me the video, they threatened me. To go out or have a weekend free, you ask for permission. It can be refused if a client has complained. There were between 12 and 16 women per brothel or bar, most of them French, many drinking and taking drugs to cope. So you shut yourself away," she said. Brothels are legal in some cities in Belgium, where prostitutes can register as independent workers.
And it was relentless. No individual bed, sleeping in shifts, johns arriving day and night -- up to "16 clients a day," she says.
The men came from all walks of life -- businessmen, politicians, footballers, actors, soldiers, workers, regular employees. There were the sporty clients, "who told their wives they were going for a run or to play football. Carole would get 75 euros per champagne cork and 90 euros for each sex act. But she had to pay for rent -- between 30 and 50 euros a day -- and for food, cigarettes, clothes, and make-up. Clients were informed of what a woman was capable of doing or not.
