Epstein was murdered and I’ll be next, Maxwell tells friends
NEW YORK: Languishing in a New York jail “hellhole” waiting to be tried for sex trafficking, Ghislaine Maxwell has told friends she believes she’ll be dead before she goes to trial.
The former girlfriend and “madam” of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein has confided to friends she believes her former pedophile lover Epstein was murdered in his Manhattan prison cell last August.
And she fears she’ll be next to meet that fate behind bars.
Friends said before her arrest, she hired bodyguards after receiving death threats.
The socialite was denied bail on sex trafficking charges and faces a year-long wait inside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre before trial.
A family friend told The Sun On Sunday Ms Maxwell, 58, feared she would be bumped off inside the jail, which wardens describe as a “hellhole”.
An inquest ruled Epstein’s death last August at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Detention Centre was suicide.
But the 66-year-old was taken off suicide watch before he died despite being injured from either a suicide attempt or an attack weeks earlier. His death by hanging sparked theories he was silenced to stop him exposing pedophile friends.
Ms Maxwell’s friend said: “Everyone’s view including Ghislaine’s is Epstein was murdered. She received death threats before she was arrested.”
The pal was in regular contact with Ms Maxwell at her New Hampshire hideaway.
Ms Maxwell, who denies her charges, faces 35 years’ jail if found guilty.
Extraordinary new testimony claims Ms Maxwell helped procure up to three girls a day for Epstein’s “sexual pleasure”. The claims by an alleged victim are likely to form part of the case against her.
Annie Farmer said Ms Maxwell ordered her to strip naked at the financier’s remote US ranch before groping her breasts when she was 16.
Ms Farmer, a psychologist, 41, is believed to be one of three victims – all minors at the time of the alleged offences – on whom US federal prosecutors are relying in their case against Ms Maxwell. One of the girls was only 14.