A woman identified only as “Kate” told jurors at Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial that Ms. Maxwell leveraged their friendship to encourage her to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein.
When the 17-year-old girl met Ghislaine Maxwell for tea in her London home in 1994, she saw Ms. Maxwell as the picture of elegance and sophistication. “She seemed to be everything I wanted to be,” the girl, now a 44-year-old woman, testified on Monday.
Within weeks, though, Ms. Maxwell asked the girl to give massages to Jeffrey Epstein, Ms. Maxwell’s boyfriend, leading to years of sexual encounters with him, the woman testified.
The woman, testifying under the pseudonym Kate, was the second of four accusers who are expected to appear as government witnesses in Ms. Maxwell’s trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan, now in its second week.
Kate told jurors that Ms. Maxwell played a direct role in arranging her encounters with Mr. Epstein, ushering her into massage rooms, coordinating her international travel and, in one case, giving her a “schoolgirl” outfit to wear as she served Mr. Epstein tea at his Palm Beach, Fla., home.
Prosecutors have charged that Ms. Maxwell helped Mr. Epstein recruit, groom and ultimately abuse underage girls, and she has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, conspiracy and other counts.
Kate’s testimony echoed that of an earlier witness. A woman identified only as Jane testified last week that Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein befriended her at a summer camp in Michigan when she was 14. Mr. Epstein invited Jane and her mother to tea and along with Ms. Maxwell forged a friendship with Jane that quickly turned into sexual abuse, Jane testified.
But while Jane was underage when the sexual abuse began, the judge, Alison J. Nathan, told the jury on Monday that Kate was over the relevant age of consent during the sexual conduct that Kate said occurred with Mr. Epstein.
For that reason, jurors were instructed not to consider Kate a victim in the case, but her testimony was allowed and can be considered when jurors weigh the conspiracy charges against Ms. Maxwell.
Kate testified that she had been a musician and model and now works with women who suffer from trauma and substance abuse.
On her cross-examination, Ms. Maxwell’s lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, sought to portray her as an ambitious model who had been eager to spend time with Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein and kept in touch with him, even writing him emails while he was in prison in 2008.
Ms. Sternheim also pointed out that Kate had spoken — using her real name — at a public court hearing in 2019 following Mr. Epstein’s death, and had appeared on television as part of what Ms. Sternheim called “a sisterhood of accusers.” The questioning seemed aimed at undermining Kate’s claims of trauma and raising skepticism about her motives for serving as a witness.
Ms. Sternheim referred to Kate’s testimony that she had in the past abused alcohol, cocaine and sleeping pills and that she had quit because she was afraid she might die if she did not.
“Fair to say using and abusing those substances over a 10-year period has had an impact on memory?” Ms. Sternheim asked.
Kate replied that the incidents with Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein that she had described on the witness stand took place when she was sober. Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein disapproved of drug use, she said.
Kate said she met Ms. Maxwell in 1994 in Paris and gave Ms. Maxwell her phone number. When they were both back in London, Ms. Maxwell called and invited her to tea at her home.
At the time, Kate was living with her ailing mother at her home in London, just blocks from where Ms. Maxwell lived. She said she was excited to have “a new friend” who in turn seemed excited to meet her. Ms. Maxwell said she hoped to introduce Kate to her boyfriend, a “philanthropist” who liked to help young people, Kate told the jury.
“She said that he was going to love me and that I was exactly the kind of person he would help,” Kate said.
Weeks later, Ms. Maxwell invited Kate to her home, where Mr. Epstein was sitting in the living room in sweatpants, Kate told the jury. Ms. Maxwell urged Kate to give Mr. Epstein’s foot “a little squeeze” to show him how strong she was, and Mr. Epstein said, “Oh, you can go ahead and do my shoulders.”
Understand the Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
An Epstein confidant. Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of a British media mogul and once a fixture in New York’s social scene, was a longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself after his arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
Soon after, Ms. Maxwell called Kate with an urgent request, Kate recalled: Mr. Epstein was there, and his masseuse had canceled — would she be able to fill in?
Kate went to Ms. Maxwell’s home, where Mr. Epstein was waiting in a dimly lit room. He initiated sexual contact with Kate, and they engaged in a sex act during the massage, Kate testified.
Kate said she continued to see Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell several times a year. She stayed in touch with Ms. Maxwell on the phone, she said, and Ms. Maxwell often raised sexual topics, including how “demanding Jeffrey was.”
Once, Ms. Maxwell asked if she knew anyone who could come over to perform a sex act on Mr. Epstein, “because it was a lot for her to do,” Kate testified. Ms. Maxwell also told her that Mr. Epstein liked “cute, young, pretty” girls like Kate, and that he “needed to have sex about three times a day.”
Asked to describe Ms. Maxwell’s demeanor when she would talk about sexual topics, Kate said, “Everything seemed to be like a fun, silly joke.”
Kate told the jury she gave Mr. Epstein sexualized massages in London, Palm Beach and New York and on his island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, saying she traveled on commercial flights with tickets arranged for her by Ms. Maxwell.
Once, when Kate was staying at Mr. Epstein’s Palm Beach home, she found what she described as a “schoolgirl outfit” laid out on her guest room bed, she said. When she asked Ms. Maxwell what it was for, Ms. Maxwell said, “I thought it would be fun for you to take Jeffrey his tea in this outfit.”
Kate put the outfit on, and Ms. Maxwell gave her a tray; she found Mr. Epstein by the pool. He initiated a sex act with her, she told the jury.
A prosecutor, Lara Pomerantz, asked Kate why she had put on the outfit.
“I didn’t know how to say no,” Kate said. “I had never been to Palm Beach or Florida before. I had no idea where the house was. And I wasn’t sure if I said no if I would have to leave, or what the consequence would be for not doing it.”
Kate said she stayed in touch with Mr. Epstein into her mid-30s. “I didn’t want to admit what had happened,” she said. “I had witnessed how connected they both were, and I was fearful.”
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
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