Kennedy nephew accused of sexual assault in lawsuit

SENATOR Edward Kennedy’s nephew William Kennedy Smith, acquitted of rape in Florida in 1991, has been accused of sexually assaulting his former personal assistant five years ago in a lawsuit filed by the woman.

Smith, a 43-year-old doctor, who helped found a global organisation in 1996 that helps the disabled, denied the allegations in the lawsuit filed in Cook County Court on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately my family and my personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of allegations,” said a statement released by Smith. An assistant to Smith, Kitty Kurth, told the Chicago Sun-Times the accuser, Audra Soulias, had demanded $3 million not to sue.

The lawsuit, which seeks more than $50,000, alleges Smith came uninvited to Soulias’ 23rd birthday celebration on January 15, 1999. After a night of heavy drinking, in which Smith kept buying drinks, he led her into a cab, forced her into his home and attacked her in his bedroom, the suit said. Soulias’ lawyer Kevin O’Reilly told WLS-TV in Chicago his client delayed bringing the suit because she was frightened about being thrust into the public eye.

A Chicago Police Department spokesman said its records showed no contact with Soulias about the alleged assault. O’Reilly also said on NBC’s Today show the two had a subsequent sexual relationship.

“It was a situation where the predator came back for the prey.

This is not about money, this is about getting Dr Smith to stop,” said O’Reilly.

A lawyer for Smith’s organisation, the Centre for International Rehabilitation, could not be reached for comment.