The first time I saw Ghislaine Maxwell, I followed her from the door of her luxurious brownstone through the streets of Manhattan asking her about the horrible accusations against her.
Almost one A decade later I saw her for the last time, in court, and she could no longer run from the truth about her life with Jeffrey Epstein .
This Wednesday received one of the most prominent convictions of a woman for enabling a sex trafficking network.
- Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking of minors for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse them
And most importantly, it is a great victory for the more than 100 whistleblowers who fought for more than a decade to have Epstein and his co-conspirators face criminal charges.
Maxwell, daughter of 60 years of a media mogul from c In a British communication, she was found guilty of trafficking in girls as young as 14 years for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein .
There were several powerful moments during the trial in a packed courtroom in New York City. Mainly from the prosecution, who kept their case simple to avoid overwhelming the jury.
Their objective was to show that Maxwell was the accomplice of Epstein, a sexual predator whose modus operandi was clearly illustrated by the experiences of four victims.
The opening statement of the prosecution to the jury began with 11 words that sounded like the beginning of a children’s book.
“I want to tell you about a young woman named Jane.”
But for these women this was not a fairy tale. It was a nightmare and it was very real. How real became apparent the next day when Jane took the stand.
She testified that Maxwell and Epstein approached her when she was 14 years in a camp artistic summer in 1994.
For the next two years, she said she was abused every two weeks and that Maxwell was involved at times. This was one of his key exchanges with prosecutors:
Ask : How was Maxwell’s behavior during these incidents?
Answer:
I would say it seemed very casual, as if it were, as if it were very normal, as if it were not a big deal.
P. And when she behaved like this, how did she make you feel?
R. Well, it made me feel confused nasty because I did not like
day normal; n I had never seen anything like this or felt anything like this, and it was very embarrassing . You know, it’s all these mixed emotions. When you have 14 years, you have no idea what’s going on.
The other witnesses would later recount similar experiences.
- Who is Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-girlfriend of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein convicted of child sex trafficking
Rich friend massage
One of the most heartbreaking testimonies came from Carolyn, who testified under her First name.
The woman was visibly devastated by years of trauma and addiction to painkillers and cocaine. Her grandfather had raped her at age four, dropped out of school in the seventh grade, and was neglected by a substance-abusing mother.
Carolyn told the court that she was one of the main complainants of Epstein, Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, who first told the 14 years that he could earn money massaging a rich friend of his.
Carolyn met Ghislaine Maxwell when she showed up at Epstein’s mansion in 2001. Maxwell, she claimed, told Virginia to take her upstairs to the massage room and “show her what to do.”
Prosecutors told jurors that by that time period, Maxwell had already devised a pyramid scheme of abuse that no longer required her to personally find young girls for Epstein.
Instead, They would reward vulnerable girls who brought in someone new with extra money.
Carolyn received hundreds of dollars for “massaging” Epstein in each of the more than 100 encounters until “She got too old.”
She brought three other friends to Epstein. Carolyn said that Maxwell, before touching her breasts, once told her that “she had a great body for Epstein and his friends.”
Teenagers often came from troubled homes. Their families faced situations like bankruptcy, substance abuse or a previous sexual assault.
And even when they didn’t, Maxwell and Epstein lured them with friends, gifts and promises to help them in their careers. or pay for their studies. That process of “seduction”, prosecutors said, was a key part of Maxwell’s ways of proceeding.
Then He used the massage ruse as an excuse for the girls to touch Epstein and normalize sexual contact. Prosecutors said that Maxwell accompanied the girls to a room to be harassed and mistreated, and that he was sometimes present “so that everything felt normal and casual.”
The other two complainants they were of the age of consent in the places where the abuse occurred and therefore the judge ruled that the sexual acts were not illegal.
Still, Kate, under a pseudonym, and Annie Farmer, who identified himself publicly, were equally convincing on the stand in demonstrating Maxwell’s tactics.
An unsuspecting defendant
Ghislaine Maxwell’s family had complained of the treatment she received in prison, saying it amounted to torture.
However, in court, Maxwell was an extremely committed and spirited defendant. He carefully studied the submissions, looked witnesses in the eye, and often passed notes to his lawyers to convey his ideas.
He seemed to be in a good mood, hugging his defense team and throwing kissing and greeting his family in court.
His steely defiance was best captured when Judge Alison Nathan asked if He would testify in his own defense. Instead of answering the judge with a simple yes or no, he stood up and informed the court that “it was not necessary” for him to do so because the prosecution had not proven his case.
His defense Instead, she was less sure. The attorneys called only nine witnesses over two days. Their strategy was largely based on cracking the case brought by the prosecutors, who have the burden of proving the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
The entire foundation of the prosecution’s case was based on the credibility of the four prosecution witnesses. Because her testimony was so convincing to the jurors, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted.
Legal experts said that attacking the women’s memories and motives did not help the accused.
“Ghislaine Maxwell had the disadvantage of having to explain this parade of young girls who entered and left the house every day under his supervision, “says Mark Epner, a former prosecutor.
” He claimed he didn’t know about it. And when the jurors concluded that she was a liar, they concluded that she was a predator. ”
The massage table and sex toys
One of the only physical evidence on display in the courtroom was a green folding massage table taken from a police raid on Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida property in 2001.
It was an attempt by the prosecution to almost recreate the scene of the crimes right there in the middle of the courtroom. A retired police officer testified that they also recovered a box of sex toys.
A disc Hardcover recovered during a separate FBI raid of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion contained emails sent by Maxwell to a staff member complaining that the house manager, Juan Alessi, did not order the massage creams. Epstein.
That led the police to Alessi, who provided some of the most compelling and X-rated testimony in the trial. Reporters covering the case had to hastily write notes to keep up with the surprising revelations about the house.
Alessi told the court that Epstein received three massages a day. When Alessi cleaned up afterward, she would put the sex toys back in their place, in a basket in Maxwell’s closet next to the master bedroom he shared with Epstein.
Alessi said Epstein or Maxwell would sometimes give her They indicated to contact and pick up young women for massages. He recalled seeing two underage girls who appeared to have 14 or 15 years, Jane and Virginia Roberts.
House rules
The rules of the house, included in a manual of 59 pages, Alessi said, told staff to be deaf , mute and blind, and forbade them to make eye contact with Epstein.
“There was a culture of silence. That was by order of the defendant, because behind closed doors, the defendant and Epstein were committing heinous crimes, ”said Assistant United States Attorney Lara Pomerantz.
Police raids on Epstein’s homes also produced intimate photos showing the lavish lifestyle and close connection that the Epstein-Maxwell duo had.
In a The image shows the couple relaxing at the Balmoral residence, when Prince Andrew reportedly invited the couple to the Scottish estate. In another, Ghislaine Maxwell is on a private plane with Epstein, massaging his foot and rubbing it against her cleavage.
The staggering wealth on display of opulent properties in Palm Beach, New York and New Mexico only highlighted the power dynamics at stake. The couple used wealth to attract and make young women feel indebted to them.
Several witnesses, including the four women, recalled how the duo used to name their friends in high positions, such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump or Prince Andrew, and showed photos of them with Pope John Paul II or Fidel Castro in their properties.
Neither said that Epstein and Maxwell’s famous friends committed any crime.
These connections proved not to be an impediment to justice and the count na is a significant time for people who are often at the other end of the social ladder.
“This guilty verdict is immensely significant for victims of sexual abuse everywhere,” said Lisa Bloom, attorney for eight of Epstein’s victims.
“It doesn’t matter who it is, it doesn’t matter what kind of circles they move in, it doesn’t matter how much money they have, it doesn’t matter how many years have passed since the sexual abuse, justice is still possible ”.
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