Anguish of schoolgirl ‘pimp’ told to procure teenagers for Epstein
A WOMAN has admitted procuring two dozen schoolgirl friends – some as young as 14 – for paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and being paid $200 for each victim.
In a harrowing interview for a new Netflix documentary series, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, which premieres on Wednesday, tearful Hayley Robson is the first of Epstein’s so-called ‘recruiters’ to admit introducing children into his ‘twisted sexual pyramid scheme’ for money.
Ms Robson, who was 16 when she began working for Epstein, says she was racked with guilt for years, until she realised that she was also a victim.
She was introduced to Epstein in 2003 by a friend at Royal Palm Beach High School in Florida who said she could make money giving ‘an old guy’ massages.
But when she went to Epstein’s $12m mansion in Palm Beach, he tried to molest her in one of the bedrooms.
Ms Robson, 33, says: ‘He was naked on the table. I remember feeling really scared. He tried to touch me below the belt. I declined. I told him I didn’t feel comfortable, and no, it’s not going to happen.
‘At that moment he was like,
“Okay, well this isn’t going to happen so if you have any friends and you bring them to me, I will give you $200.’’
‘I would recruit girls who were friends. I would casually bring it up and we would drive together to his house. I would take them to his room and then I’d walk out. Sometimes I would wait by the pool. When the girls would leave, Jeffrey would come out and pay me. I probably recruited 24 girls. Those girls brought other girls too. They were all underage.’ She says the youngest was 14. In Florida the legal age for consent is 18.
Ms Robson says she was ‘destroyed’ by guilt every day for years until she realised she was also a victim: ‘I was 16. He was the adult. He shouldn’t have asked me to do those things.’
The gripping four-part Netflix series tells how Epstein – who killed himself in jail last summer after being arrested on child sex charges – set up a sophisticated web of recruiters, using girls to lure their friends from at least four high schools near his home. Epstein preyed on girls from difficult backgrounds.
Psychologist Kathryn Stamoulis described Epstein’s recruitment system as a sexual pyramid scheme, saying: ‘He was a brilliant, narcissistic billionaire. Adolescents could not cope with that.’
The programme’s director, Lisa Bryant, who spent 20 months making Filthy Rich, used a secret computer server and kept all footage under lock and key for fear of retribution from the billionaire.
The show claims he kept surveillance tapes from all his homes to blackmail the rich and powerful. Ms Bryant said: ‘We started working on this before Epstein was arrested. He proved time and again that power and money helped him evade justice. We knew we couldn’t be too careful.’
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who claims Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew three times – the first when she was just 17 in 2001 – also speaks out in the documentary. Andrew has vehemently denied the claims and any wrongdoing. During his infamous ‘car crash’ interview on BBC’s Newsnight last November, he denied ever knowing her.
Ms Roberts Giuffre was interviewed by Netflix two days after that programme aired and said: ‘I’m watching it on my tablet. I wanted to throw my tablet in the pool. As a victim, the one thing you ask for is some acknowledgement, some remorse. This guy [Andrew] didn’t have any remorse at all.’
‘If you bring any friends I will give you $200’