The first witness of the trial against Ghislaine Maxwell for sex trafficking of minors has drawn a stark account of the abuses to which she was allegedly subjected for years by the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein, of whom the accused was right hand, necessary cooperator and, according to the prosecution , responsible for the recruitment of girls. Jane, a false name, is today an actress who does not want to see her name or her career compromised, but at age 14, when she was attending a summer camp for young people with artistic inclinations, she was booked by the couple and immediately invited to the magnate’s mansion in Palm Beach (Florida), where the young woman resided. The woman, who gave a statement on Tuesday in the court of the Southern District of New York, will be subjected to intense questioning by the defense on Wednesday to dismantle her accusation.

Maxwell, who at first showed herself to her as an older sister, and Epstein offered to mentor her in her artistic career, thus gaining her trust. In her statement, Jane described Maxwell as “a little weird and quirky” at first. The woman, heir to the British communication businessman Robert Maxwell and who faces up to 80 years in prison for the six crimes he is charged with, cajoled her by talking about her sex life and, together with Epstein, took her shopping in lingerie stores . The teenager was then at a particularly vulnerable time due to the death of her father and the lack of family resources, in addition to the emotional helplessness on the part of her mother. After his first visits to the mogul’s mansion, before the abuse began, Epstein gave him money for his mother, he told the court.

One day, while they were talking about how to project the young woman’s fledgling artistic career, Epstein, who committed suicide in his cell in the summer of 2019 a month after being arrested, grabbed her hand and dragged her to a pool house. , where he forced her to sit on top of him while he masturbated. “I was frozen in fear, I had never seen a penis before. I was terrified and I felt dirty and ashamed, ”Jane told the court. The drawings that have transcended the session – the federal courts do not allow access to the cameras – show his face erased, to prevent his identification.

It was, he said, the beginning of years of sexual abuse. On several occasions Maxwell was present, who used to be shown nude or in topless together with other girls in the pool of the mansion, and who sometimes even participated in the events, according to the young woman’s story, touching her breasts. He also taught her how to give the tycoon erotic massages. Asked about the defendant’s behavior on those occasions, Jane replied: “I would say it seemed very casual, as if it were all very normal, as if it were not a big deal.”

The defense will try to dismantle Jane’s version based on the time that has elapsed since the events and the probable gaps or distortions in her memory, in her condition as an actress – who was supposedly playing a role in court – and in the true purpose of her declaration as a victim, that he would be none other than to benefit from the compensation fund, with an endowment of five million dollars, which was established as a result of the arrest and death of Epstein. Ghislaine Maxwell has consistently defended her innocence during the long year she has been in custody.