Box of sex toys and massage table shown to jurors
JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S green leather massage table and a box of sex toys have been displayed in the trial of the convicted paedophile’s alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell.
A hushed court in New York watched on Friday as prosecutors revealed the folding massage table taken from Epstein’s £15million villa in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a theatrical flourish, a retired policeman wearing gloves ‘examined’ the table as Maxwell sat impassively five feet away.
Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while on child sex charges, is said to have abused scores of young women and girls with a ruse of asking for a massage before turning violent and sexual.
Maxwell, 59, faces six charges of child sex abuse and trafficking minors for sex. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges, but faces 80 years in jail if convicted.
Earlier last week, a victim known as ‘Jane’ testified that Epstein sexually assaulted her on the massage
table when she was just 14 while Maxwell watched and ‘gave instructions’. Jurors were shown a box of sex toys labelled ‘Twin Torpedos’.
Jane testified: ‘He liked to use vibrators that were different sizes and even, like, those back massages that were, you know, painful.’
She said Maxwell would instruct her on how to massage Epstein, adding: ‘He liked…very hard, like rubbing his shoulders really hard and twisting his nipples hard.’
Epstein’s former house manager Juan Alessi said Epstein received three massages a day. Mr Alessi sometimes found sex toys left on the massage table which he would wash and return to a wicker basket stored in Maxwell’s closet.
Jurors were shown photographs and videos from inside the mansion that showed ‘sexualised’ images of prepubescent girls. One hanging outside the master bedroom shared by Epstein and Maxwell was an ‘overtly sexual photograph of a clearly underage female,’ prosecutor Maurene Comey said.
Another picture on Epstein’s desk showed him pulling down a young girl’s underwear and pretending to bite her bottom. ‘He prominently displayed that on his desk… when the defendant was the lady of the house,’ Ms Comey said.
Bobbi Sternheim, defending, accused prosecutors depicting Epstein’s home unfairly as a ‘domicile of debauchery’ and insisted the picture of him pretending to bite the young girl’s bottom was a ‘playful moment’ with his goddaughter.
Prosecutors said they would show jurors ‘small schoolgirl outfits’ from a cupboard near the massage room. The trial continues tomorrow and is expected to last six weeks.