Accuser tells court Ghislaine Maxwell inspected her body for ‘Mr Epstein and his friends’ before she gave hundreds of sex massages from age 14
Prosecutors tell Judge Alison Nathan they intend to wrap up their case by the end of the week
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Ghislaine Maxwell groped a naked 14-year-old while telling her she had a “great body type” for Jeffrey Epstein, a New York court heard on Tuesday.
A third accuser took the stand in Ms Maxwell’s underage sex-trafficking trial on Tuesday using only her first name, Carolyn.
She testified that she gave Epstein more than 100 sexualised massages at the Palm Beach estate beginning when she was about 14 after being introduced to him through Virginia Roberts-Giuffre.
Carolyn said after visiting Epstein two to three times a week for about four years, she stopped going after the birth of her first child aged 18.
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When she went back to the Palm Beach property, Epstein asked if she had any younger friends.
“I said ‘no’, and that’s when I realised I was too old.” Her visits to the estate stopped abruptly, she said.
Carolyn described an earlier encounter in the massage room at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion in El Brillo Way with Ms Maxwell.
“She came in and felt my boobs, my hips and my buttocks, and said that ... I had a great body for Mr Epstein and his friends. She said that I had a great body type.”
“Who?” prosecutor Maurene Comey asked.
“Maxwell,” Carolyn replied, explaining that she always referred to the socialite by her last name as she couldn’t pronounce Ghislaine.
She said she continued going back to the mansion because she was young and $300 was “a lot of money”.
Carolyn’s voice cracked as she was asked to identify Epstein from a photograph.
Ms Maxwell, 59, faces six charges; one each of enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking of a minor, and three counts of conspiracy related to the other counts.
She has denied all the charges.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Carolyn told the court she had endured an abusive and dysfunctional childhood; her mother was an alcoholic and she had been sexually abused by her grandfather from the age of four.
She said she was introduced to Epstein through Ms Roberts-Giuffre, who suggested Carolyn could make easy money from an older male friend of hers.
Carolyn said Ms Roberts-Giuffre dressed her “provocatively” and drove them to her first visit to the Palm Beach mansion.
She said Ms Roberts-Giuffre, who was about 18, taught her how to prepare the massage table and oils, and showed her how Epstein liked to be massaged.
She said she witnessed Epstein and Ms Roberts-Giuffre in a sex act during the first massage, and she was paid $300 in hundred dollar bills.
After the first visit, she said Ms Maxwell arranged for her to come to Epstein’s Palm Beach estate alone by calling her, her boyfriend or her mother.
“Maxwell would call and set up the appointment times,” she said.
Ms Maxwell had wanted to take her to Epstein’s private island, but Carolyn told her she was only 14 and there was “no way in hell” her mother would let her travel overseas.
Carolyn said she confided in Ms Maxwell and Epstein about the abuse she had suffered as a toddler.
Prosecutors have previously said the “partners in crime” deliberately targeted girls from broken homes.
As well as money she said she was given gifts of Victoria Secret lingerie, tickets to see the band Incubus and a copy of “a massage book for dummies” as she wanted to become a massage therapist.
She said Epstein asked her to recruit other young girls to give him sexualised massages.
“He asked me if I had any friends that were my age or younger, and I told him that I didn’t hang out with younger people but I did have some friends that I could ask.”
Carolyn said when she brought a friend to Epstein’s house she was paid $600, and her friend received $300.
“Why did you get extra?” prosecutor Ms Comey asked.
“Because I brought a friend with me,” she replied.
Carolyn recalled two other females being summoned to the massage room by Epstein, who she said would press a button and they would appear naked.
The two women performed a sex act on her while Mr Epstein had sex with them, she said.
She also said two of Epstein’s friends and Ms Maxwell were present during the sexualised massages.
On another occasion, she testified she was photographed naked by another Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen. She was paid $500-$600 for the photos, she said.
Carolyn said she used the money to buy drugs and alcohol, and became addicted to opioids and cocaine.
She said the drug use had not interfered with her memory.
Carolyn had been convicted of felony possession of cocaine and later of trying to pawn a stolen Xbox, and was jailed for the latter crime for 52 days.
Ms Comey asked Carolyn about her current drug use, and she said she was taking methadone, xanax, and an anti-schizophrenia drug.
In cross examination, Jeffrey Pagliuca questioned Carolyn about a 2009 civil lawsuit in which she sued Epstein and his former assistant Ms Kellen.
Carolyn, who said she received $250,000 to settle the suit, conceded that Ms Maxwell’s name wasn’t mentioned once in the 91-page complaint.
She said she hadn’t read the complaint before her lawyers filed it, and had trouble recalling sitting for a sworn deposition.
Mr Pagliuca also asked Carolyn about a 2007 FBI interview where she hadn’t referred to Ms Maxwell. She replied that she had not been asked about Ms Maxwell in the 2007 interview.
Carolyn also conceded she had told the FBI that it was Epstein who had arranged her second visit to the Palm Beach residence.
“A lot of it runs together because I have gone there so many times,” she said.
Carolyn said she had received a payout of between $1m and $3m from a victim compensation fund set up by Epstein’s estate.
After the jury had been dismissed for the day, prosecutors told Judge Alison Nathan they intended to wrap up their case by the end of the week.
The case was originally set to last for six weeks, and this would significantly shorten the length of the trial.
![Among the files found on the Epstein hard drives was a flyer seeking massage therapists in Palm Beach promising “Excellant [sic] pay”](https://static.the-independent.com/2021/12/07/20/2021-12-07T180628Z_1643112455_RC2U9R9XM4IU_RTRMADP_3_PEOPLE-GHISLAINE-MAXWELL.JPG)
Earlier in the day, FBI computer analyst Stephen Flatley testified about hard drives recovered from Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse.
He said he made clones of devices seized from the property during a raid in July 2019. He located a Microsoft Word document created in 2002 by a user “G Max”.
It stated: “Jeffery and Ghislaine have been together, a couple, for the last 11 years. They are, contrary to what people think, rarely apart. I always see them together.
“Ghislaine is highly intelligent and great company with a ready smile and an infectious laugh.”
The letter went on to say: “Jeffrey and Ghislaine compliment each other really well and I cannot imagine one without the other. On top of being great partners, they are also the best of friends.”
It’s unclear what the purpose of the letter was.