(New York) At Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial in New York, a new victim told Tuesday about her battered life and underlined the active role played by the former partner of American financier Jeffrey Epstein.
On the seventh day of the trial of the daughter of British tycoon Robert Maxwell, in federal court in Manhattan, a third woman, “Carolyn”, testifying under a pseudonym, explained that she had been “more than 100 (times)” to the residence of Epstein in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 14 to 18, for what always started with a massage.
But “every time, something sexual was happening,” she testified, her voice quavering, behind a glass anti-COVID-19 box.
Ghislaine Maxwell, figure of the 59-year-old jet-set – British, American and French – has been on trial since November 29 for having provided to her former companion and collaborator who committed suicide in prison in the summer of 2019, the extremely wealthy Jeffrey Epstein, underage girls so that he can exploit them sexually.
The incriminated facts date back to 1994-2004. Detained since her arrest in the summer of 2020, she has pleaded not guilty to all counts, for which she faces life imprisonment.
“A rich friend”
Unlike two previous witnesses already cited by the prosecution, “Carolyn” did not designate Ghislaine Maxwell as the one who took her for the first time to Jeffrey Epstein.
She spoke of another woman, who is not a party to this lawsuit, Virginia Giuffre. This American filed a lawsuit in 2021 in New York against British Prince Andrew, accusing him of being one of those close to Maxwell and Epstein who abused her when she was underage, more than 20 years ago. years.
“Virginia asked me if I wanted to make money […] I was going to meet a rich friend “and give him massages,” said “Carolyn”, wearing a loose striped sweater.
Before jurors, she spoke of a difficult childhood in West Palm Beach, her leaving school in 5e and an “alcoholic and drug addict mother”.
Once at Epstein’s, in his luxurious residence, “we were greeted by Mr.me Maxwell, an older woman (than us) with dark hair ”. “We went up to the bathroom” where there was a massage table, according to “Carolyn”. The first time, she recalls, the massage lasted 45 minutes, then Epstein had sex with Virginia Giuffre, in the presence of “Carolyn”.
“I was paid $ 300,” every time I visited Palm Beach, she said. “Ghislaine Maxwell called and made an appointment, it was like that the first year,” she recalled.
“Too old” at 18
From 14 to 18 years old – “afterwards, I was too old” – the visits take place once, twice or three times a week.
“But why did you continue? »Asks the prosecutor. “I was buying drugs […] marijuana and cocaine “, admits” Carolyn “who assures that the couple could not ignore his age, since they had spoken about it.
One day, Ghislaine Maxwell, saw her naked: “she told me that I had a very beautiful body for Mr. Epstein”, after having touched his chest. The accused, dressed in black, has not spoken since the start of the trial.
This third testimony is added to those of “Jane”, 14 years old at the time, and “Kate”, a 17 year old Briton in the 1990s, who brought to light the active role of Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey. Epstein.
And like them, “Carolyn” was subjected to lengthy cross-examination by the defense, who emphasized her past drug and medication addictions.
One of Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers, Jeffrey Pagliuca, tried to point out all the possible contradictions between the testimony of “Carolyn” before the FBI in 2007, during a first investigation against Epstein, then in his complaints and finally in the more recent procedure which allowed him to touch more than a million dollars of the “Epstein fund”, an official mechanism of reparation drawn from the fortune of the multimillionaire after his death.
He also noted that in his first hearings, the name of Ghislaine Maxwell was never mentioned.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who evolved in privileged circles between Oxford, London, Paris and New York, had met Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s and had been in turn his companion, his friend and his collaborator.