Ghislaine Maxwell gave me nude massage when I was 16, accuser says
The fourth accuser to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial said Friday that she was only 16 when the British socialite gave her a nude massage at Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.
This accuser, Annie Farmer, also said that the morning after her encounter with Maxwell, Epstein climbed into bed with her and said he “wanted to cuddle” and she “felt kind of frozen”.
“Do you see anyone in this courtroom who has ever given you a massage?” prosecutor Lara Pomerantz asked, shortly after beginning her direct examination.
“Yes, I do,” Farmer said, saying that she was “wearing a brown sweater” and seated across the room, to her right.
“Let the record reflect that the witness has identified the defendant,” Pomerantz said.
“How old were you when Ms Maxwell gave you a massage?”
“I was 16 years old.”
Annie Farmer, who has chosen to testify under her full name, while other witnesses have been identified only by their first name or a pseudonym, gave a detailed account of how she met Epstein and Maxwell. She shared similarities with other accusers, including financial instability at home.
Farmer, 42, told jurors in this federal court case in New York that she met Epstein at his Manhattan home in late 1995. Her sister Maria worked for him as a fine arts painter.
Epstein bought her a plane ticket to New York, something she had not previously been able to do due to financial constraint.
Farmer heard from her sister that Epstein was possibly “interested in helping me with my education”, she told the court.
Farmer first went to his house with her sister, to pick up Phantom of the Opera tickets he had bought them.
“He seemed very friendly and kind of down to earth. He was dressed casually,” Farmer said. They chatted and then Epstein’s driver drove them to the theater.
The second time Farmer met Epstein was to go to the movies with him and her sister. Epstein sat between the two siblings. At some point during the film, Epstein reached over and “caressed” her hand, she said.
“He was rubbing the bottom of my shoe and then rubbing my foot, my leg,” she said. “I was very nervous.” She felt “sick” and troubled by how Epstein would take his hand away when he turned to interact with her sister.
Farmer said she did not tell her sister about what had happenedbecause Maria was “very protective” and she did not want to say anything that could jeopardize her sister’s employment with Epstein.
In spring 1996, Farmer learned that she was traveling to see him again, for a weekend, at his New Mexico ranch, when her mother told her about the trip.
“I was not eager to go to New Mexico,” Farmer recalled. But she felt a little bit more comfortable because there would be a woman there. “I’d been told that Maxwell would be in New Mexico with Epstein.”
She thought that Maxwell and Epstein were “romantic partners, so I didn’t think he’d do anything like that when they were together”.
When she arrived at the airport, she was driven to the ranch.
“When I arrived, I saw Epstein, and then I met Ghislaine Maxwell,” she said. “She did not seem surprised to see me at all. She seemed to know who I was and [was] excited to see me.”
They made several excursions into town.
After they returned to the ranch, “it was decided that I would learn how to give Epstein a foot massage and Maxwell would show me how to rub his feet.”
“I watched what she was doing, and she was instructing me. I did what she told me,” Annie Farmer said. “I felt very uncomfortable. I wanted to stop.”
Then, Maxwell turned her attention to the girl.
“She asked me if I’d ever had a professional massage,” Farmer said. “She said she wanted me to have that experience and would be happy to give me a massage.” There was a massage table set up in the room where she was staying.
“Did Maxwell give you a massage?” Pomerantz asked.
“She did.”
Pomerantz asked Farmer what she was wearing during the massage. “Nothing.”
“Why were you wearing nothing?” “She told me to get undressed,” Farmer said.
“She said to get undressed and get [under] the sheet on the massage table, and I did…
“She pulled the sheet down and exposed my breasts, and started rubbing on my chest and on my upper breast.” As Farmer recounted this, Maxwell looked toward her accuser.
“I just wanted so badly to get off the table.”
Farmer said the next morning, she was in bed when Epstein “bounded into the room, saying he wanted to cuddle”.
“He climbed into bed with me,” she said, saying that Epstein put his arm around her. “He pressed his body into me.”
Annie Farmer said she told Epstein that she had to go to the bathroom, so she could escape this situation. The last day on Epstein’s ranch, Annie said that Maxwell no longer showed interest in the academic discussions they had once shared. She said she had no contact with Maxwell after New Mexico.
That summer, Annie went on a cultural immersion trip to Vietnam and Thailand. Epstein paid. She did not have any contact with Epstein after her return home.
Annie and Maria are reported to be the first accusers to report Epstein’s sexual misconduct to law enforcement, more than two decades ago.
During cross-examination, one of Maxwell’s lawyers, Laura Menninger, challenged Annie on past statements she had made that appeared to be at odds with her depiction of the massage. Menninger pointed to an August 2019 report in which Annie described being topless during the massage, but did not say she was without underwear. The attorney also attempted to undermine Annie’s depiction of the massage as sexualized.
Prosecutors also called Annie’s high-school boyfriend and mother to the stand. He told jurors that Annie had confided in him about her experiences in New Mexico and Manhattan. Annie’s mother, Janice Swain, corroborated details about how she wound up traveling to New Mexico.
After Annie returned from her summer trip, Swain asked her what had happened in New Mexico.
“She said: I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just not going to let it ruin my life.”
Swain was the government’s last witness. Shortly after her testimony, prosecutor Alison Moe told Alison Nathan, the judge: “The government rests.”
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org /rcip/internl.html