AFP, published on Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 5:44 am
The trial for sex trafficking of Ghislaine Maxwell resumes Thursday in New York with the interventions of the lawyers of the former partner of the American financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sex crimes and died in prison in 2019.
No less than 35 witnesses could be called to try to convince the jury of the Manhattan federal court that the ex-socialite played no criminal role with the wealthy Jeffrey Epstein.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 59 – British, American and French and daughter of press magnate Robert Maxwell – has been on trial since November 29, accused of providing her former companion and collaborator, Epstein, with underage girls in order to that he exploits them sexually.
The one who is accused of being a “tout” has been detained in New York since her arrest in the summer of 2020 – a year after the suicide in prison of the financier, who had deprived dozens of victims of trial. She pleads not guilty to all counts, for which she faces life imprisonment.
– Rather comfortable –
She has not expressed herself once at her trial, where she seems rather at ease, in particular by exchanging with her lawyers.
The latter should testify a psychologist specializing in “truncated memories”, Elizabeth Loftus, to emphasize that the testimonies of the victims are a quarter of a century old and likely to be inaccurate.
The incriminated facts date back to the period 1994-2004. Four women – “Jane”, “Kate”, “Carolyn” and Annie Farmer, 42, the only one to speak without a pseudonym – recounted their lives damaged by coerced sex with Epstein when they were minors and often in the presence of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Annie Farmer told the same scenario as the three other victims: a first warm meeting with Mawxell who proposed to these 14 to 17-year-old girls, fragile and penniless, to meet Epstein under the pretext of helping them financially.
After an initial invitation to Epstein’s villa in Palm Beach (Florida), New Mexico or New York, the young girls were encouraged by Maxwell to undress, then to give Epstein massages which ended irreparably with sexual acts.
– 300 dollars the sexual act –
Relationships have for some lasted years with the Epstein-Maxwell couple and one of the witnesses said that she was paid $ 300 for each act of sex.
The main argument of Maxwell’s lawyers is that their client is appearing only because the real culprit, Jeffrey Epstein, committed suicide in prison in the summer of 2019, aged 66.
The multimillionaire was convicted in Florida in 2008 for paying young girls for massages. But he had only served 13 months in prison following a confidential agreement with the prosecutor at the time.
Another shadow hangs over the Maxwell trial: that of British Prince Andrew, a close friend of Epstein, the target since August of a civil complaint in New York for “sexual assault” filed by an American, Virginia Giuffre.
This complaint should be examined at the end of 2022 even if the second son of Queen Elizabeth II is not prosecuted in criminal proceedings and denies these facts which would have taken place between 2000 and 2002, when Virginia Giuffre was a minor.
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