Complainant says Maxwell acted ‘like an older sister’
A woman who claims she was Ghislaine Maxwell’s first victim has described in shocking detail how the British socialite allegedly ‘‘groomed’’ her from the age of 13.
The woman says she endured years of rape and abuse after Maxwell and her then boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein approached her at an American summer camp in 1994 and offered to help with her singing career.
Maxwell initially acted ‘‘like an older sister’’, the woman claims in court papers filed in New York. Later, it is alleged, the millionaire Briton ‘‘regularly facilitated Epstein’s abuse . . . and was frequently present when it occurred’’.
At one point, when she had turned 14, the woman – known only as ‘‘Jane Doe’’ – claims she was introduced by Epstein to Donald Trump at the future president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Trump.
The woman’s account is described in a civil lawsuit filed this year against Maxwell and Epstein’s estate. She is suing both parties for undisclosed damages after the disgraced financier committed suicide in prison last August.
The details of her claim bear similarities to the youngest of three underage victims cited last week in an 18-page criminal indictment against Maxwell on charges of child sex trafficking and grooming between 1994 and 1997. Maxwell, 58, is also accused of perjury.
Lawyers for Doe, who lives in California and is now 39, allege that their client was Epstein and Maxwell’s ‘‘first known victim’’ and ‘‘a guinea pig to refine their criminal enterprise’’.
The court documents claim: ‘‘Epstein’s system of abuse was facilitated in large part by his coconspirator and accomplice, Maxwell, who helped supply him with a steady stream of young and vulnerable girls – many of whom were fatherless, like Jane Doe, and came from struggling families.’’
The woman alleges that she first met the couple at a summer camp for the arts in Michigan when she was 13. ‘‘Epstein and Maxwell probed her at length about her background, her family situation and where she lived,’’ according to the court filings.
Epstein ‘‘bragged’’ about his support for ‘‘talented young artists like Doe’’ and offered to pay for her ‘‘voice lessons’’ in Florida, where the girl lived at the time with her widowed mother.
‘‘Over the course of the next several months, Epstein and Maxwell attempted to groom and mentor 13-year-old Jane Doe,’’ the US papers claim. ‘‘Epstein gave himself the name of Doe’s ‘godfather’, while Maxwell acted like an older sister to her. They took her to movies, went shopping with her and lounged about Epstein’s [Florida] estate with her.’’
It is claimed the couple soon started to expose the youngster to ‘‘sexual references’’. The court papers allege: ‘‘For instance, Maxwell told Doe that having sex with ex-boyfriends was easy because once you slept with them ‘they’ve been grandfathered in and you could go back and f*** them whenever you wanted’.
‘‘Epstein also started to slowly display his paedophilic ways when shopping with Doe and Maxwell. Instead of Doe picking out clothes she wanted to wear, Epstein insisted that she . . . wear little children’s cotton underwear.’’
Each time she visited the couple, Epstein is said to have given her ‘‘two or three onehundred dollar bills’’ to pass on to her impoverished mother.
Epstein allegedly carried out a sex act on the girl for the first time at the end of 1994 in his pool house in Palm Beach, Florida. The accuser claims the abuse escalated over the next few years, taking place at Epstein’s New York mansion and at his ranch in New Mexico.
In 1997, when Doe was 17, she alleges that Epstein raped her at his Manhattan home after indicating that she ought to lose her virginity.
‘‘From that point forward for several years in New York, Epstein raped Doe on multiple occasions,’’ the lawsuit claims. Maxwell is accused of ‘‘facilitating’’ the abuse and often being present when it took place at the mansion close to Central Park.
The alleged victim eventually managed to escape when she moved to Los Angeles in 1999, the same year that Maxwell reportedly introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew.
Doe is among a number of alleged victims who have filed damages claims since Epstein’s death.
Maxwell’s US lawyer, Larry Vogelman, declined to comment.
She has previously denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes. In a statement in 2011, she said: ‘‘The allegations made against me are abhorrent and entirely untrue.’’ – Sunday Times