Assange lawyers demand investigation after leak

The WikiLeaks saga took a surprising turn yesterday when the Guardian published leaked Swedish police accounts of the complaints leveled against editor Julian Assange by two women he slept with in August. Both women have claimed that while they consented to sex, he insisted on unprotected sex against their wishes.

The fact that the details have been leaked at all has infuriated Assange's lawyer in Stockholm, Bjorn Hurtig. The fact that it should be the Guardian of all papers that has published the details makes it doubly galling for Assange and his supporters.

The Guardian is the whistle-blowing website's newspaper of choice in the UK, enjoying privileged early access to the thousands of diplomatic cables WikiLeaks has made public in recent days. The paper's decision to publish the leaked police details suggests a division of opinion among the paper's senior journalists.

Hurtig, a top sex-crime defence lawyer, said yesterday he would call for an official investigation into the leak and insisted it was a malicious attempt to discredit Assange at a critical moment for his fight against extradition from the UK.

According to the Sunday Times, Hurtig told a colleague yesterday: "It is with great concern that I hear about this because it puts Julian and his defence in a bad position.

"I do not like the idea that Julian may be forced into a trial in the media. And I feel especially concerned that he will be presented with the evidence in his own language for the first time when reading the newspaper.

"I do not know who has given these documents to the media, but the purpose can only be one thing - trying to make Julian look bad."

The full allegations against Assange include details which have not made it into the public domain before. Ms A, one of the women who spoke to police, apparently claimed that she consented to sex with Assange but that when she tried to reach for a condom he stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs.

He eventually relented and used a condom. But, according to Miss A, he had "done something" with the condom that resulted in it becoming ripped, and he ejaculated without withdrawing.

The second woman, Miss W, also consented to sex with Assange, according to the leaked details. When she insisted he wear a condom, he apparently "lost interest" and fell asleep.

During the night they spent together, they woke up and had sex at least once when "he agreed unwillingly to use a condom". Early the next morning, however, she claimed she woke up to find Assange having sex with her. When she asked whether he was wearing a condom, he said no.

The Guardian report claims that both women went to police not to seek prosecution but to put pressure on him to take an STD (sexually transmitted disease) test which he was allegedly disinclined to do because he was too busy.

The paper also revealed that a friend of the two women told police that Ms A said she had had "the worst sex ever" with Assange: "Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."

Whatever the truth of the allegations, there is a growing sense that within the Guardian there are those who are not totally convinced that Assange is simply the victim of an American-inspired smear campaign.

The Mail on Sunday reports that a "senior journalist who worked closely with Mr Assange at the Guardian... has refused to continue dealing with him".

Writing today in the Guardian's sister paper, the Observer, Catherine Bennett bemoans the (largely male) champions of Assange who refuse to consider the possibility he is guilty ­ or should at least face his accusers.

"So, Mr Assange, why won't you go back to Sweden now?" she asks. ·