In a tearful and graphic account, Nafissatou Diallo, the African woman of Guinean descent, yesterday appeared on ABC, an American television network and revealed that randy ex-IMF boss, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, greeted her in the nude and grabbed her breasts when she went to clean his room on 14 May this year.

The 32-year old single mother disclosed that 62-year old Strauss-Kahn then forced her to perform oral sex, grabbing her head very hard so that not to escape.

Diallo said she had been shocked when Strauss-Khan emerged naked from the bathroom of his luxury New York suite. She said: “I was like. 'I'm so sorry.' I turned my head, he came to me and grabbed my breasts and said, 'No you don't have to be sorry.'”

She claimed Strauss-Khan told her: “You're beautiful.” She added: “I said, 'Sir, stop this. I don't want to lose my job.' He said, 'You're not going to lose your job.' I pushed him. I got up. I wanted to scare him. I said, 'Look, there is my supervisor right there'.”

The African woman of Gunean descent said Strauss-Kahn behaved like “a crazy man”, adding: “I was like stop, stop, stop this, but he kept pushing me, pushing me. I was so afraid, I was so scared.”

Diallo also told the television network that she feared for her life after learning the next day of Strauss-Kahn's high profile. She said: “I think, 'They are going to kill me. They're going to kill me so no one knows.'”

Lawyers not involved in the case said it was virtually unheard of for someone alleging sexual assault in a highly publicised case to come forward — name, face and all — to speak to the news media while prosecutors were still investigating the matter, The New York Times reported.

The decision, the newspaper reported, to go public this week could hint that her legal team believes that prosecutors are close to abandoning the case.

As a result, there was speculation on Monday that the hotel housekeeper's advisers were pessimistic about the next move by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

“My expectation is that she's now speaking to the press because she has an expectation that the prosecution is not going forward with her case,” said Raymond R. Castello, a defence lawyer and the former deputy chief of the Manhattan district attorney's trial division.