Ghislaine Maxwell trial – live: Victim ‘too old’ for Jeffrey Epstein at 18 and says he had photo of pregnant socialite

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Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Second accuser testifies

Day eight of the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is underway at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.

More details of alleged sexual abuse of teenage girls by Jeffrey Epstein and Ms Maxwell, his former partner, emerged on Wednesday after a third accuser shared her testimony in court.

The British socialite, who has been accused of luring and grooming girls and sending them to the convicted sex offender from the 1990s onwards, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Ms Maxwell’s defence team said that she is being made the “scapegoat” for Epstein’s deeds.

Fresh testimony against the duo by the third accuser Carolyn stated how she was greeted by Ms Maxwell when she visited Epstein’s Palm Beach house and was paid $300 for massaging Epstein.

Carolyn said she had visited Epstein’s house more than 100 times and even up to three times a week when she was 14-18 years old and something sexual happened on each occasion.

The prosecution said they intend to rest their case this week, wrapping up arguments from their side in a trial that was expected to last five to six weeks.

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Meanwhile Maxwell chats with brother in French

As we wait on the missing juror, Marta Dhanis of Fox News send this dispatch from inside the courtroom — Ms Maxwell and her brother Kevin are speaking at length in French as they wait for proceedings to get underway.

Oliver O’Connell8 December 2021 15:10

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Train delays put breaks on trial

While Judge Nathan heard arguments from lawyers on both sides this morning regarding witness testimony and submission of evidence, the jury has still not been brought into the courtroom.

The judge said they are waiting for a juror who is encountering “substantial train issues” this morning.

She has stepped down from the bench until the juror arrives.

Oliver O’Connell8 December 2021 15:00

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New photos entered into evidence released

A number of photos of Epstein and Ms Maxwell together have been entered into evidence, including pictures of her giving him a foot massage.

The witness “Kate” spoke of being asked by Ms Maxwell to give Epstein a foot massage when she first met him.

Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an undated photo released by prosecutors in her sex trafficking trial

(US District Attorney’s Office)

Ghislaine Maxwell gives Epstein a foot massage in pictures released by prosecutors

(US District Attorney’s Office)

Ghislaine Maxwell would encourage young girls to give Maxwell sexualised massages, prosecutors say

(US District Attorney’s Office)

Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were ‘partners in crime’, the prosecutors allege

(US District Attorney’s Office)

Oliver O’Connell8 December 2021 14:50

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The prosecution would also like to call a witness to verify records at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Palm Beach residence and club, relating to Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre).

Ms Maxwell’s defence team is trying to keep this evidence out of proceedings.

Oliver O’Connell8 December 2021 14:26

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Day eight of trial to begin momentarily

Ahead of the jury being brought into the courtroom, Judge Alison Nathan has ruled that she will tell them that the last accuser’s account does not constitute “illegal sexual activity” as it took place in New Mexico where the age of consent was 16.

This is similar to how the earlier accuser “Kate” was not classified as a victim of the crimes that Maxwell is charged with having been aged 17 at the time of the events.

The new accuser, Annie, was 16 at the time, but prosecutors say she was groomed in other jurisdictions with differing age of consent rules.

Oliver O’Connell8 December 2021 14:23

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No one wants to buy Epstein’s New Mexico ranch

A 12-square-mile ranch belonging to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is reportedly not getting any buyers.

The property, known as “The Zorro Ranch,” is located in New Mexico and was used by the disgraced financier to allegedly traffic underage girls.

The ranch includes a 26,700-square-foot mansion, a private airstrip and helipad. It was put on sale by the Epstein estate for $27.5m (£20.7m) in July this year.

Sravasti Dasgupta reports:

Eleanor Sly8 December 2021 13:12

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Accuser claims she saw photos of Ghislaine Maxwell ‘nude and pregnant’ at Epstein’s home

An accuser claimed to have seen a photograph of Ghislaine Maxwell “nude and pregnant” at Jeffrey Epstein’s home, as she testified in the ongoing sex-trafficking trial involving the British socialite.

The woman, identified only by her first name Carolyn, told the New York court on Tuesday that she had seen the photo at the Palm Beach estate of late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Carolyn – who is not using a pseudonym – has accused Ms Maxwell of groping her when she was 14 and has claimed she visited Epstein two to three times a week for about four years to give him sexualised massages.

Sravasti Dasgupta reports:

Eleanor Sly8 December 2021 11:46

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Ghislaine Maxwell: The life of the Jeffrey Epstein associate accused of sex trafficking

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of British newspaper baron Robert Maxwell and his French wife Elisabeth, was born in affluent Maisons-Laffitte in northern France on Christmas Day 1961, the youngest of nine children.

Just two days later, her teenage brother Michael was involved in a car accident that would keep him in a prolonged coma until his death in 1967, a tragedy that marked the family.

Ghislaine and her siblings were raised in Oxford at the Maxwells’ Headington Hill Hall home, a sprawling mansion that also served as the headquarters for their father’s Pergamon Press publishing outfit, which, at 14, Ghislaine would help by learning to programme a new suite of Wang computers her father had introduced in 1973 as part of a modernising initiative.

Eleanor Sly8 December 2021 10:30

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Third accuser: ‘My heart is broken and so is my soul’

The third accuser in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a woman in her mid-30s known as Carolyn, said that Maxwell has “fondled”, adding “because of that, my heart is broken and so is my soul.”

Carolyn testified that she and Jeffrey Epstein had talked about the fact that she was both underage and that she had been the victim of sexual abuse as a young child.

She added, each meeting would end with Epstein masturbating and touching her breasts and buttocks. “Something sexual would happen every single time,” she said.

The testimony came as prosecutors indicated that they could finish presenting their case to the jury as soon as Thursday.

After this, the defence would then be able to call witnesses.

Eleanor Sly8 December 2021 09:21

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Epstein’s island: What really happened there?

The guests came from across the world, and from the highest ranks of society: celebrities and scientists and members of royal families, touching down in a private jet and then boarding a helicopter to the island. Its owner liked to call it “Little St Jeff”; locals called it “paedophile island”.

But what is the truth about Little St James, the 75-acre private paradise in the US Virgin Islands that billionaire sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein once called home?

The island is now at the centre of a web of lawsuits and criminal investigations seeking to untangle the life of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 at the age of 66 in what authorities claimed was a suicide.

Eleanor Sly8 December 2021 08:11

Credit: Source link

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