After her friends left, she spoke with Epstein, who had then arrived and introduced himself as a donor.
She said she was eating ice cream with friends when Maxwell approached with a Yorkshire Terrier, drawing their attention. The witness first met Epstein and Maxwell in 1994 when she was attending a music camp in pursuit of a singing career, she said. The witness’ testimony was offered by prosecutors to support their claims that Maxwell recruited and groomed girls for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to at least 2004. Some jurors leaned forward to hear the witness while occasionally glancing at Maxwell. Maxwell maintained a steady gaze in the witness’s direction, occasionally writing notes that she passed to lawyers. She also largely avoided looking at Maxwell, except when she pointed an index finger when she was asked to identify her.
She said Maxwell instructed her on how to give Epstein sexual massages and sometimes physically participated. The witness testified in a quiet but steady voice, though she got choked up twice and also dabbed at her nose with a tissue as she described the sexual encounters. Prosecutors went to the heart of their sex trafficking case against Maxwell with their second witness, a woman in her early 40s who was introduced to jurors as “Jane,” a pseudonym she said she prefers, in part to protect a 22-year acting career.ĭuring sexual encounters that began in 1994 and continued through 1997, Maxwell “was very casual,” she told a New York City jury. NEW YORK - The first of four women described as key accusers in the indictment against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell testified Tuesday that Maxwell was often in the room when the witness, then just 14, had sexual interactions with the financier Jeffrey Epstein.