Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were ‘partners in crime’, court told as UK socialite’s trial begins
- With money and gifts, the duo enticed girls as young as 14 to engage in ‘so-called massages’ before they were sexually abused, the prosecutor says
- She says Maxwell made the teenagers feel safe, taking them on shopping trips and asking them about their lives, schools and families
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were “partners in crime” in the sexual abuse of teenage girls, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements, with the defence countering that like so many women before her, Maxwell was being made a scapegoat for a man’s bad behaviour.
Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz said at the start of Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial that the British socialite and Epstein enticed girls as young as 14 to engage in “so-called massages” in which sex abuse came to be seen as “casual and normal” after they were showered with money and gifts.
The prosecutor sought to make clear to a jury of 12 that there was no confusion about whether Maxwell, Epstein’s long-time companion, was his puppet or accomplice.
She described Maxwell, 59, as central to Epstein’s sex abuse scheme, which prosecutors say lasted over a decade.
“She was in on it from the start. The defendant and Epstein lured their victims with a promise of a bright future, only to sexually exploit them,” Pomerantz said.