By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers were expected to resume questioning on Wednesday of a woman who said the British socialite facilitated her sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s, when she was 14, and took part in some encounters.
The woman, known by the pseudonym Jane, took the stand for the government on the second day of the British socialite’s sex abuse trial in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. She said Epstein offered to help her advance her career as a performing artist, but then regularly sexually abused her for years.
Maxwell, 59, is charged with eight counts of sex trafficking and other crimes, including two perjury charges that will be tried separately. She faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted.
Maxwell, the daughter of late British media magnate Robert Maxwell, has pleaded not guilty and her lawyers have said prosecutors are seeking to scapegoat her for Epstein’s alleged crimes. The well-connected financier died by suicide at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
In emotional testimony on Tuesday, Jane said she had sexual encounters with Epstein at his Palm Beach home multiple times per month while she was 14, 15 and 16. Other people occasionally participated, including Maxwell, whom Jane said touched her breasts.
Maxwell acted “like it was very normal,” Jane said.
“It made me feel confused because that did not feel normal to me,” she said. “When you’re 14 you have no idea what’s going on.”
In the first half hour of cross-examination on Tuesday, Maxwell attorney Laura Menninger asked Jane about how she did not report the encounters with Epstein and Maxwell to law enforcement officials until 2019, decades after they allegedly took place.
Her lawyers have said Jane and three other accusers expected to testify for the government in the six-week trial have financial incentives to implicate Maxwell, since their rewards from a victim’s compensation fund set up by Epstein’s estate would be “enhanced” if they cooperated with prosecutors.
Jane, now in her early 40s, said that for a long time she was too embarrassed to discuss the encounters.
“How do you describe any of this to any one of your peers or your siblings when all you feel is shame and disgust and confusion?” Jane said.
She said she eventually told a former romantic partner, known by the pseudonym Matt, about Epstein’s abuse. Matt is expected to testify once Jane finishes, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Sandra Maler)
