Here are 10 key moments from Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex abuse trial
Global News
A jury on Wednesday convicted British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of recruiting and grooming four teenagers for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.
A jury on Wednesday convicted British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of recruiting and grooming four teenagers for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.
Here are 10 key moments from the trial.
1. In her opening statement, prosecutor Lara Pomerantz called Maxwell a predator who manipulated girls and groomed them for abuse by Epstein, her employer and onetime boyfriend. Maxwell saw recruiting girls for Epstein to have sex with as a means to maintain a luxurious lifestyle, Pomerantz said.
“They were exploiting kids,” Pomerantz said. “They were trafficking kids for sex.”
2. Maxwell defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim began her opening statement by citing the biblical story of Adam and Eve to argue that Maxwell, like many women before her, was being blamed for a man’s bad behaviour. Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell.
“Epstein’s death left a gaping hole in the pursuit of justice for many of these women,” Sternheim said. “She’s filling that hole, and filling that empty chair.”
3. A woman known by the pseudonym Jane testified that Epstein first abused her in 1994, when Jane was just 14.
Maxwell sometimes took part in sexual encounters with Jane and Epstein, and acted as if it were normal, Jane testified.