Highlights From the Seventh Day of Ghislaine Maxwell’s Sex-Trafficking Trial

A third accuser, a woman identified only as “Carolyn,” said she was sexually abused for years by Jeffrey Epstein, and told jurors that Ms. Maxwell arranged the meetings.

A third accuser took the stand in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial on Tuesday and described years of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein that began when she was 14 years old.

Testifying during the second week of the trial, the woman — identified in court only by her first name, Carolyn — described Ms. Maxwell’s role in ways that echoed the stories of the two other women who testified before her.

Prosecutors say Ms. Maxwell, 59, helped to recruit and groom teenage girls for sexual abuse by Mr. Epstein, the notorious sex offender and financier who was her longtime companion. Mr. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial; Ms. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations.

Here are some key moments from the seventh day of the trial.

A third woman told an unsettling story of abuse

Carolyn said she had already been the victim of sexual abuse by a relative as a child when a teenage friend introduced her to Mr. Epstein, saying she could make money giving him massages. At the time, she had dropped out of middle school and was addicted to cocaine and pills, she said.

Almost immediately, Carolyn said, Mr. Epstein began sexually abusing her during those massages, after which she was paid in cash, $300 or $400, sometimes by Ms. Maxwell. She estimated she had been abused by Mr. Epstein more than 100 times over four years. She had used the money he gave her to buy drugs, she said.

While still a teenager, Carolyn got pregnant with a boyfriend and had a child, but still went back to Mr. Epstein’s house a few times to give sexual massages, because she needed money. “He asked me if I had any younger friends, and I said no,” she said. “And that’s when I realized I was too old.” She was 18 at the time.

The girl who introduced Carolyn to Epstein is one of his most prominent accusers

Carolyn said her friend, Virginia Roberts, introduced her to Mr. Epstein when they were both teens, asking if she wanted to make money giving massages.

Ms. Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, later became one of the most outspoken accusers of Mr. Epstein, and though she is not expected to testify at Ms. Maxwell’s trial, some of the testimony has corroborated her accounts in depositions in civil suit.

Ms. Giuffre was identified in court last week by Juan Alessi, a former employee of Mr. Epstein, as one of the underage girls he saw at the financier’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate.

Carolyn said Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein knew she was underage

Carolyn testified on Tuesday that Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein asked her about her home life often and once asked if she could travel to Mr. Epstein’s private isle in the U.S. Virgin Islands. But she told them she did not have a passport and her mother would not allow her to go, she said, underscoring the prosecution’s claim that Ms. Maxwell was aware that she was below the age of consent and Mr. Epstein was having illegal sex with her.

After testifying, a witness’s phone call sparked a legal dispute.

One planned witness who will not be taking the stand is the brother of “Jane,” the first woman who took the stand last week and said Ms. Maxwell had recruited and groomed her for sex with Mr. Epstein. Brian was expected to testify Tuesday to support certain aspects of his sister’s testimony.

But prosecutors disclosed to the defense overnight that after her testimony Jane had called her brother, identified as “Brian,” and had complained about a harsh cross-examination by a defense lawyer. Witnesses in a trial are typically told not to consult with each other, and Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers asked that Brian be barred from testifying. Late in the day, prosecutors announced that they had decided not to call him, ending the dispute.

The third of four accusers took the stand late Tuesday morning in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, beginning her testimony by briefly recounting a difficult childhood in Palm Beach, Fla., where she dropped out of middle school, she said, and became addicted to cocaine and pain pills.

The accuser, testifying using only her first name, Carolyn, is identified in the indictment as Minor Victim-4 — the subject of the sex-trafficking count Ms. Maxwell faces. She spoke in a soft, halting voice, and the judge at times asked her to speak up.

Carolyn testified that she met Jeffrey Epstein through a female friend when she was 14 years old. That friend, Virginia Roberts, asked her if she wanted to make money by giving massages to her friend who lived on Palm Beach Island.

When the two girls arrived at Mr. Epstein’s house, Ms. Maxwell met them at the door and told them to go upstairs to Mr. Epstein’s bathroom. The first time, Ms. Roberts got fully undressed and Carolyn asked to keep on her bra and underwear. Then, Mr. Epstein entered the massage room and lay down.

Forty-five minutes later, Mr. Epstein turned over, Ms. Roberts got on top of him and they had sex, Carolyn told the jury, her voice cracking. Carolyn watched from a nearby couch, she said.

Afterward, Carolyn said they were both paid, in hundred dollar bills left at the bathroom sink, and Ms. Maxwell took her number.

Ms. Roberts, now known as Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has become one of Mr. Epstein’s most vocal accusers. She is not believed to be one of the four victims on which the charges against Ms. Maxwell are based and is not expected to testify at trial.

Carolyn testified that she gave Mr. Epstein hundreds of massages over the next four years. Ms. Maxwell, she said, would call to set up appointments, which her then-boyfriend would urge her to take.

Each time she went over to the house, Mr. Epstein would first lie on his stomach while Carolyn gave him a massage and they spoke about her troubled upbringing. At the end, he would roll over, touch her, sometimes with a sex toy, and masturbate.

“Something sexual happened every single time,” Carolyn said.

She was paid $300 to $400 in hundred dollar bills after each encounter, sometimes handed directly to her by Ms. Maxwell, she said. She used the money, she said, to buy drugs.

She said she brought teenage friends over a few times to take part in the massages, and was paid extra. Once, she said, Mr. Epstein pushed a button in the room and a young naked woman with an accent came into the room, and the three of them had sex.

Carolyn testified that Ms. Maxwell saw her naked in the massage room three times, including once when she touched her breasts and complimented her body.

Carolyn said she sometimes talked to Ms. Maxwell about her upbringing, including details about how she was sexually abused by her grandfather starting when she was four. Mr. Epstein, too, sometimes asked her about her home life.

Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein knew she was only 14 years old, she said, because they asked if she could travel to Mr. Epstein’s island and she said she did not have a passport and her mother would not allow her to go.

Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein sent her gifts, she said: Victoria’s Secret lingerie, concert tickets, a massage book.

Carolyn said she always called Ms. Maxwell “Maxwell,” rather than her first name. Asked by a prosecutor, Maurene Comey, why she did that, Carolyn said, “Because I couldn’t exactly pronounce her first name correctly.”

She also told Ms. Comey that she regularly takes methadone and other medications to manage her addiction and schizophrenia symptoms.

Several years into the abuse, Carolyn got pregnant by her then-boyfriend and had a child, she told the jury. Afterward, she went back to Mr. Epstein’s house a few times, because she needed money. “He asked me if I had any younger friends, and I said no,” she said. “And that’s when I realized I was too old.”

She was 18.

From: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/07/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-trial