NEW YORK — One was an aspiring musician looking for her big break in show business. Another was a model striving for a leg up in British society. A third was a struggling middle school dropout. The last was an impressionable high school student. All were drawn into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit as teenagers and now […]
NEW YORK — One was an aspiring musician looking for her big break in show business. Another was a model striving for a leg up in British society. A third was a struggling middle school dropout. The last was an impressionable high school student. All were drawn into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit as teenagers and now have also testified as key accusers in the sex-abuse trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. The women’s testimony in federal court in Manhattan, at times emotional, offered sordid details about allegations Maxwell groomed them to participate in sexual massages with Epstein. The defense says Maxwell is being made to take the fall for Epstein, who died by suicide awaiting his own sex-abuse trial in 2019. The first three women testified as Jane, Kate and Carolyn – first names or pseudonyms intended to protect their privacy. The last was Annie Farmer, who took the witness stand using her real name. Here is what they said during two weeks of testimony for the government, which rested its case Friday. The defense is set to begin its own case next week: Jane spelled out an alleged pattern of deception by Maxwell that would be echoed by the others. She said she was 14 when she met Maxwell and Epstein at a music camp where Epstein was a benefactor. Maxwell showered her with attention in a way that left her vulnerable the moment she was first instructed to follow Epstein into his pool house in his Palm Beach, Florida estate in 1994, she said. When he began to sexually abuse her, “I was frozen in fear,” she said. “I’d never seen a penis before.
