1st of 4 accusers takes stand at British socialite Maxwell’s trial
NEW YORK — A woman testified on Tuesday that British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was often in the room when the witness, then just 14, had sexual interactions with the financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell “was very casual,” she told a New York City jury. “Like it was no big deal.”
She claimed the defendant instructed her on how to give Epstein sexual massages and sometimes physically participated in the encounters as well.
The witness, using the pseudonym “Jane,” was the first of four alleged victims expected to testify against Maxwell at a New York City trial where she is charged with recruiting and grooming girls for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to at least 2004.
The witness first met Epstein in 1994 when she was attending a music camp in pursuit of a singing career, she said. He came up to her and introduced himself as a donor. They discovered that they both lived in Palm Beach, Florida, she said.
The woman and her mother soon received invitations to Epstein’s home, she said. He and Maxwell would take her shopping for clothes, including underwear from Victoria’s Secret, she said.
The cycle of abuse started when Epstein abruptly took her by hand one day and said, “Follow me,” before taking her to a pool house at the home. Then he pulled down his pants, pulled her close and “proceeded to masturbate,” she said.
“I was frozen in fear,” she said. “I was terrified and felt gross and felt ashamed.”
Another time, she was taken to a massage room where he and Maxwell both took advantage of her, she said.
On cross-examination, defense lawyer Laura Menninger sought to grill the witness on why she waited 20 years to report the alleged abuse by Maxwell. Menninger also asked if it was true she had previously spoken to her siblings and others close to her about Epstein’s behavior, but left Maxwell out of the earlier accounts.
“You never mentioned Ghislaine Maxwell?” the lawyer asked.
“I don’t know,” the witness responded, adding she only remembered being uncomfortable with going into all the details.
The cross-examination was expected to continue today.
Earlier Tuesday, a former pilot for Epstein testified that he never saw evidence of sexual activity on planes as he flew his boss and others — including a prince and ex-presidents — for nearly three decades.
Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr., the trial’s first witness, was responding to questions by a defense lawyer when he acknowledged that he never encountered sexual activity aboard two jets he piloted for roughly 1,000 trips between 1991 and 2019.
He said he stayed in the cockpit for the majority of flights, but would sometimes emerge to go to the bathroom or get coffee.
Visoski didn’t hesitate when Maxwell attorney Christian Everdell asked him if he ever saw sexual activity when he went for coffee or found sex toys when he cleaned up.
“Never,” the pilot answered to both questions.
And when he was asked if he ever saw sex acts with underage females, he answered: “Absolutely not.”