First of four accusers takes stand at Ghislaine Maxwell trial
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’d never see a penis before . ... 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.
“There were hands everywhere and Jeffrey proceeded to masturbate again,” she said. Other encounters involved sex toys or turned into oral sex “orgies” with other young women and Maxwell, she added.
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.