Ghislaine Maxwell ‘took young girls to the movies and on shopping sprees to groom them for Jeffrey Epstein’
GHISLAINE Maxwell groomed young women to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein by taking them to the movies and on shopping sprees, lawyers alleged on Thursday after her arrest.
The British heiress lured girls as young as 14 years old to a plethora of Jeffrey Epstein’s residences, including his mansion in New York City and his Florida estate, according to a federal indictment.
The 58-year-old socialite even lured the young women to her home in London, according to the indictment.
“In particular, from at least or about 1994, up to and including at least in or about 1997, Maxwell assisted, facilitated, and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18,” the indictment says.
Maxwell, Epstein’s confidante, was arrested in New Hampshire on Thursday morning on charges of conspiring with the financier to sexually abuse minors.
She was reportedly arrested near the Bedford home of her alleged boyfriend Scott Borgerson, and will face a judge this afternoon.
The accused madam first developed a rapport with her victims, asking about their schools and families or taking them to movies or on shopping sprees, prosecutors said.
Once she became more comfortable with the young women, she allegedly turned the conversation to sex and discussed sexual topics or undressed in front of them.
That’s when she encouraged them to give Epstein massages, during which the girls were fully or partially nude, the indictment says.
Those massages occasionally developed into sexual encounters, some of which Maxwell took part in, the indictment says.
In addition to grooming the young women, Maxwell allegedly participated in “multiple group sexual encounters” with one victim between 1994 and 1997 and gave an unwanted massage to another girl while she was topless in 1996.
She encouraged a third to give Epstein massages at her home between 1994 and 1995 “knowing that Epstein intended to sexually abuse [her] during those massages,” according to the indictment.
Maxwell was asked whether her wealthy ex-boyfriend had “a scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages” during a 2016 deposition, to which she replied: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Dozens of women have claimed Maxwell recruited them when they were underage or very young to act as Epstein’s sexual servants.
It’s also claimed she introduced Prince Andrew to “sex slave” Virginia Roberts, who now goes by the surname Giuffre, when the woman was a teenager.
The prince vehemently denied the allegations, which were made in a 2015 lawsuit tied to a defamation case involving Giuffre.
Maxwell has strongly denied any wrongdoing, and until today the accusations hadn’t resulted in criminal charges.
Maxwell is the youngest child of disgraced media tycoon and British publisher Robert Maxwell.
She moved to New York in 1991 after her father’s death and dated Epstein a year later, but remained close with him for decades after their breakup.
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The socialite first vanished when prosecutors began re-examining hundreds of criminal complaints against her former boyfriend in fall 2016.
In a 2015 statement, she rejected allegations of her acting as Epstein’s procurer.
“The allegations made against Ghislaine Maxwell are untrue,” Maxwell’s spokesperson said, adding that she “strongly denies” the “defamatory claims.”