‘You’ve got a great body for Jeffrey & his friends’
What Maxwell ‘told girl of 14 as she groped her breasts’
GHISLAINE Maxwell groped a 14-year-old girl and told her she had ‘a great body’ for paedophile Jeffrey Epstein ‘and his friends’, a court heard yesterday.
Maxwell regularly summoned the schoolgirl for sex with the financier at his Florida villa despite being told she was underage, jurors were told.
The alleged victim, referred to only as Carolyn, said to a court in New York she had been recruited for the abuse by her friend – and Prince Andrew’s accuser – Virginia Roberts.
On day seven of British socialite Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial, Carolyn said she went to Epstein’s home ‘hundreds’ of times between the ages of 14 and 18.
When she hit adulthood, it became apparent that, to Epstein, she had become ‘too old’, she said.
She is the third woman in the case to make accusations against Maxwell, and the second who was 14 at the time.
Maxwell, 59, who the court has heard was ‘the lady’ of Epstein’s house, denies ‘serving up’ children to be molested by the multi-millionaire. Carolyn explained
‘Pyramid scheme of abuse’
to the jury her mother was an alcoholic and a drug addict and that her grandfather had abused her from the age of four.
She met Epstein when she was 14 through Miss Roberts, the Epstein victim who claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17. The duke has emphatically denied all of her claims.
‘Virginia asked me if I wanted to go make money’, Carolyn said. ‘We were going to go to her friend’s house in Palm Beach. I would give him a massage. I was going to make a lot of money.’
On her first visit to Epstein’s villa in 2001, Carolyn was ‘dressed provocatively’ by Miss Roberts, she said, and met Maxwell.
After helping massage Epstein, and watching him have sex with Miss Roberts, Carolyn said she was paid $300 in hundred dollar bills, and on the way out she gave her phone number to Maxwell.
She said she returned scores of times over the coming years, being paid each time, sometimes by Maxwell, ‘because $300 was a lot of money’, adding: ‘Something sexual happened every single time.’
On one occasion when Carolyn was ‘fully nude’ in Epstein’s bathroom, Maxwell allegedly came in.
The witness told the jury: ‘She felt my boobs and my hips and buttocks and said that I had a great body for Mr Epstein and his friends. She said I had a good body type.’ She added: ‘I was 14.’
Another time, Maxwell offered to take the schoolgirl to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
‘I told her there was no way in hell my mum was going to let me leave the country. I told her I was 14,’ said the witness, who is now a 34-year-old mother.
Epstein and his ‘partner in crime’ Maxwell allegedly devised a sick ‘pyramid scheme of abuse’ in which they bribed schoolgirls to recruit their friends.
When she was 15 or 16, Carolyn admitted recruiting three other girls to take to Epstein’s house – two the same age as her, and the third a year older. She would be given a $300 bonus for bringing a new girl, she said. Sometimes they would all have sex with Epstein together. Breaking down in tears, Carolyn said she used the money to buy marijuana, cocaine and alcohol to ‘block out’ her feelings from the abuse.
Maxwell denies all charges against her. Her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim has told jurors: ‘Ever since Eve was accused of tempting Adam for the apple, women have been blamed for the bad behaviour of men.’
The defence has suggested Maxwell did not live at the Florida villa with Epstein, despite the house being decorated with photos of them together, including one of them kissing, which was shown in court yesterday.
Other photos shown to the jury yesterday showed them as a happy, laughing couple, touring the world in his private jet and embracing for selfies at beauty spots.
A document found on a computer recovered by the FBI – created under Maxwell’s username ‘Gmax’ – described her relationship with Epstein by saying: ‘Jeffrey and Ghislaine have been together, a couple, for the last 11 years.’
It is not clear who wrote the document, but it went on: ‘They are, contrary to what many people think, rarely apart. I almost always see them together.
‘Ghislaine is highly intelligent and great company with a ready smile and an infectious laugh, will always put one at one’s ease and always makes one feel welcome. Jeffrey and Ghislaine share many mutual interests and they have a lot of fun together.
‘Jeffrey and Ghislaine compliment each other really well and I can’t imagine one without the other. On top of being partners, they are also the best of friends.’
Maxwell, using her ‘Gmax’ username, also sent an email complaining the villa’s handyman Juan Alessi – who has given evidence saying Maxwell ran the house ruthlessly – was ‘truly awful’ at his job.
She listed his faults, among them that the ‘massage creams in Jeffrey Epstein’s bathroom were a mess – nobody had tidied them up.’ The case continues.