‘Naked Ghislaine’s court let-off’
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A WOMAN who claims she was offered up to vile Jeffrey Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell has blasted the socialite’s sentence.
Gretchen Rhodes, who fronts music legend Mick Fleetwood’s new band, says Maxwell “got off lightly”.
She claims Maxwell stripped naked on one occasion that Epstein was being massaged.
Another time, she claims Epstein performed a sex act on himself – a secret she kept for two decades.
Gretchen, 45, has waived anonymity and tells the Sunday Mirror: “I think she got off extremely lightly. I’m glad she got 20 years but I’m not very pleased that it was not more than that.
“She led me into that situation, knowing it’s not a normal situation to put somebody else in. To me, she is the reason that I was abused.”
Mum-of-one Gretchen was 24 and working at a salon in the US Virgin Islands when she says Maxwell spotted her and hounded her into going to Epstein’s island hideaway Little St James. Gretchen spells out her accusations in Channel 4 series Ghislaine Maxwell: The Making of a Monster, set to begin on Tuesday.
The three-parter also claims Prince Andrew visited the island.
Gretchen says Maxwell pursued her after their meeting at the Grapevine Salon and Spa on the isle of St John. Gretchen, who grew up in Kansas, tells the documentary: “My feelings were saying, ‘Stay away, just go about what you’re doing’. But my brain was telling me, ‘Look at this person, she’s very well mannered, articulate. Why would you not want to go along with what she’s asking you to do’?”
Gretchen alleges Maxwell told her: “Don’t ask questions. If you see anything, you’re going to keep it to yourself, or hear anything, you’re going to keep it to yourself.”
It was months before Gretchen was asked to massage Epstein. She said: “Finally, when she decided I was ready or fit, or I had gotten her trust, then I was ‘allowed’ to massage Jeffrey. Miss Maxwell walked me to his room for the first time and explained:
‘Whatever happens during the massage, you keep to yourself.’ She came in, took off her shirt, took off her bra, took off her pants. I was trying not to look. Then she got redressed and just left like it was nothing. He just laid down, and I did a normal massage, just a normal massage.”
Gretchen, a classically trained musician, says Epstein reeled her in by flying her to New York and arranging for her to meet record label bosses.
But after returning to the Caribbean, she says he performed a sex act on himself while forcing her to rub his nipples.
She said: “That was my payment for having been flown to
New York and given opportunities – such a high and then just such a low.”