Jan 6, 2002/ FWD/ --- Two months after filing rape charges in France, Dutch former catwalk star Karen Mulder has finally spoken about her widely publicized accusations that she was sexually abused as a child and later raped by influential men after becoming a model.

"Everything started when I was small. A member of my family’s entourage abused me sexually; I was 2 years old. He was a psychopath. He hypnotized me,'' Mulder told the weekly magazine VSD in an interview published this week.

Mulder first made these accusations on the set of a French TV talk show in October, though the program producer and host Thierry Ardisson decided not to air the comments, and later destroyed the tape of the interview.

One month later, after Mulder had filed a complaint with the anti-prostitution department of the French police, magistrate Jean-Pierre Gaury began an official investigation into her complaint.

"The details (of the early sexual abuse) are not important. It’s hard for me to reply. I don’t even know if I can trust you. I trusted Thierry Ardisson and he betrayed me," Mulder told VSD.

The magazine conducted its interview with 32-year-old Mulder in her apartment on November 3, shortly before her sister had her committed to a psychiatric clinic, where apparently she still resides.

The magazine claimed it decided to publish the article when it realized her stay in the clinic would be an extended one.

Mulder shot to fame in the early ‘90s as one of the original supermodels with Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford. She’s perhaps best known in the public mind as the wondrous creature who once opened a Victoria’s Secret show attired in white feathered bikini and huge wings.

VSD describes Mulder as swinging between paranoia and depression during the interview, in which she recounts using cocaine. "Today I don’t touch anything. I smoked a lot of joints for a very long time, but that’s finished," Mulder told the magazine.

The former model said she started getting flashbacks of her childhood abuse and rapes during summer holidays in Mauritius in 2001.

According to eyewitness accounts of the TV interview, Mulder also claimed that top executives at her former agency Elite and Prince Albert of Monaco, where she has residence for tax purposes, had tried to rape her. However, Mulder did not repeat these claims to VSD.