The accusers of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have painted a picture of a depraved and ruthless sexual predator who seemed to view young girls as a luxurious accessory to his decadent lifestyle.
According to testimony in the New York trial of his one-time girlfriend and alleged co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, the notorious couple drew impressionable teenage girls into their orbit so they would be available for Epstein to sexually abuse.
However, one account from a woman who says she was routinely abused by the shadowy financier, who died in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019, gives a picture of a relentless sex fiend for whom abusing girls was a near-daily affair.
The woman, who was identified by only her first name, Carolyn, testified that she visited Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, mansion over 100 times when she was between the ages of 14 and 18, and sometimes as many as three times a week, according to The Independent.
She said that when she arrived, she was greeted by Maxwell, who would take her clothes off to prepare for Epstein’s “massage.” Carolyn requested that she keep her bra and underwear on, however.
Carolyn also testified that Maxwell herself fondled her when she was just 14.
“She came in and felt my boobs and my hips and my buttocks,” she said.
The now-30-something woman said that because of the abuse, “my heart is broken and so is my soul.”
The judge instructed the jury to disregard this heartbreaking comment at the behest of Maxwell’s attorney.
Carolyn was paid $300 per visit to Epstein and that every meeting was sexual. Typically, she said, he would masturbate while touching her breasts and buttocks.
“Something sexual would happen every single time,” she said.
The New York Post reported that, as they have done to previous witnesses, Maxwell’s attorneys aggressively cross-examined Carolyn and suggested that she had a financial interest in testifying against their client.
At this point, the victim began “bawling.”
When prosecutors came back to ask her to clarify details about her age and whether she had anything to gain from the trial, she said, “Money will not ever fix what that woman has done to me.”
On Monday, a woman using the pseudonym Kate testified that she had been told by Maxwell that Epstein “needed to have sex about three times a day,” according to CNN.
She also said she was asked to recruit other young girls who could provide him with oral sex.
Kate, who says she was first recruited to give massages to Epstein in Maxwell’s London home and later was flown to Palm Beach and Epstein’s private island for the same purpose, also said she had seen photos of nude girls scattered in the Florida mansion.
“I remember that they were shocking,” she said.
Based on these women’s testimony, Epstein seems to have collected girls like toys and treated them about the same — only they were real, live, human beings who will be haunted for the rest of their lives by what he did.
Maxwell’s attorneys claim the role she played in Epstein’s sexual abuse has been overplayed by opportunistic victims and she has become the scapegoat for Epstein’s crimes since he is no longer alive to stand trial.
Her own trial is still underway, so her future hangs in the balance.
We can be assured, however, that Epstein will have to answer to a much more powerful judge than anyone who sits in a federal court for what he did during his life.