eNewMexican

Accuser testifies against Maxwell

By Shayna Jacobs

NEW YORK — By age 14, the now-grown woman told jurors, she was addicted to cocaine and pain pills.

She had been molested by her grandfather at age 4, and her mother, also a habitual substance abuser, didn’t care what she was up to. She said she quit school after the seventh grade.

Ghislaine Maxwell knew the girl’s age and her troubled backstory, the woman testified Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Yet Maxwell allegedly booked appointment after appointment for the girl to give sexualized massages to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

At one point, the witness said, Maxwell groped parts of her naked torso and remarked she had “a great body for Mr. Epstein and his friends.”

The woman — identified only by her first name, “Carolyn” — was the third Epstein accuser to testify at Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial.

Prosecutors allege Maxwell, 49, was instrumental to the peddling of a number of underage girls to Epstein, who demanded sexualized massage sessions multiple times a day.

A former British socialite who helped manage Epstein’s homes and was romantically involved with him for years, Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that could lead to a sentence of up to 70 years in prison.

At the start of the cross-examination, a lawyer for Maxwell tried to expose discrepancies between Carolyn’s testimony Tuesday and what she said in a deposition taken during a lawsuit years ago.

Carolyn, who is now in her 30s, told jurors she went to Epstein’s mansion two to three times a week for massage sessions that included sex acts.

Her voice breaking at times, she said Maxwell sometimes called her mother’s phone, or a phone belonging to her older boyfriend, to book her.

She said she earned $300 to $400 in cash, which she used to fuel her drug habit.

In 2004, Carolyn testified, she became pregnant. After having the baby, she continued to make trips to Epstein’s for money. But she began to feel as though she was no longer wanted there.

Epstein asked her if she had younger friends, she said. “That’s when I realized I was too old.”

Carolyn said the trauma from her time in Epstein’s world is still a factor in her life.

NATION & WORLD

en-us

2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/281681143171248

Santa Fe New Mexican