Tycoon told off recruiter for bringing him an ‘old’ woman of 23

‘I decided that this is my life, and I have to take responsibility for it, because I did volunteer’

NEW YORK investigators examining Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking network are turning their attention to a woman who served as his teenage recruiter, it has been claimed.

Haley Robson was 16 when she was approached at a swimming pool near her home in Florida by a high school acquaintance who offered her the chance to make some money, the New York Times has reported.

Miss Robson, now 33, was told she would be paid to give massages to a billionaire staying in Palm Beach.

This turned out to be the house of paedophile Epstein. She gave him a massage, she said in a 2009 deposition, and then started recruiting other girls to do the same, and was paid by Epstein to bring the girls to him.

Yesterday, two sources told the US newspaper that Miss Robson was among the Epstein “enablers” being investigated by prosecutors who have said that Epstein’s suicide does not mean the end of the case. There has been much speculation that other Epstein associates – including Ghislaine Maxwell, the British heiress, and Epstein employees Sarah Kellen, Lesley Groff, Adriana Ross and Nadia Marcinkova – could also be drawn into the investigation.

But the paper’s report is the first time that sources within the investigation have confirmed that they are looking into the activities of any particular one of his associates.

The four employees were all granted immunity under a 2007 plea deal struck in Florida. All four, through their lawyers, have denied any wrongdoing.

Miss Robson told the New York Times that she had “nothing to say”. She added: “I would appreciate if I was not contacted.” Court documents show that Miss Robson was placed under surveillance by Florida police in 2005, when they first began investigating the accusations against Epstein.

When questioned, aged 19, she told police: “I’m like Heidi Fleiss” – a reference to the infamous Hollywood madam who recruited prostitutes for film stars.

She provided police with the names and ages of all the girls she had brought to Epstein, implicating herself in a number of crimes under investigation. Miss Robson told police she had provided Epstein with at least six girls over a two-year period, with the youngest being 14 and the oldest a 23-year-old woman – for whom she was reprimanded by Epstein for bringing her to him, as he told her she was too old.

In the 2009 deposition, Miss Robson said she had considered suing Epstein.

“I just thought it was the easy way out,” she said.

“And then I decided that this is my life, and I have to take responsibility for it, because I did volunteer.”