The first of four accusers in the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell took the witness stand in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, claiming she’d been sexually abused by Maxwell and her former partner, Jeffrey Epstein, beginning when she was only 14 years old. 

Using the pseudonym “Jane,” the witness said she met Maxwell during a summer arts camp in Michigan. It was 1994 and she was eating ice cream with friends when the British socialite walked by with a “cute little Yorkie,” The New York Times reports. 

Jane and her friends asked to pet the dog, and not long after the friends left, a man appeared. The woman asked Jane for her phone number after discovering that she lived in Palm Beach, Florida. The chance encounter turned into nearly a decade of sexual abuse at the hands of Maxwell and Epstein. 

In the weeks that followed, Epstein called the then-eighth-grader and invited her and her mother to his house for tea. Her mother went for one visit, leaving Jane to go solo for visits that followed. 

The Miami Herald reports that, at the time Jane met Maxwell and Epstein, her father had recently died. Her family had gone into bankruptcy and the family was struggling, and living in a pool house behind a friend’s Palm Beach home. 

Jane says Maxwell made her feel special, like an older sister, while Epstein offered to help out the family monetarily. 

“From the very beginning, there was a lot of bragging about how they were friends with essentially everyone,” Jane said. Adding that Maxwell and Epstein would drop names such as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Mike Wallace. They wanted her to know “they were very well connected and affluent,” she said. 

“My mom was so enamored with the idea that these wealthy, affluent people took an interest in me,’’ she told the jury. 

Jane explained that the “big sister” relationship with Maxwell quickly evolved into something else. 

Maxwell began talking about sex, taking her shopping to Victoria’s Secret for panties—“basic-looking ones” like “white cotton briefs”—and insinuating that the couple could “make things happen” for the teen. It was around this time, Jane says, that on one visit Epstein took her hand and led her into the pool house. Once inside, he pulled her on top of him on a sofa and “proceeded to masturbate.” After he was done, Jane testified that Epstein “acted like nothing had happened.” After that, Jane told the courtroom, everything “changed when the abuse started happening.”

Maxwell and Epstein and their team of assistants arranged for Jane to visit his Palm Beach house every 10 days or so, and when she was around 15, to his homes in New York and his ranch in New Mexico. Epstein began giving Jane money after the abuse started, paying for her voice lessons, school, clothing, and housing for her and her family. Even after Jane broke things off with Epstein in 2002, he continued allowing her mother to live in one of his apartments. 

“I was frozen in fear,” Jane said. And never told anyone because she said: “I was terrified and felt gross and I felt ashamed.”

The abuse, which included intercourse, forced on her by Epstein, while Maxwell sometimes fondled her, took place so often it became routine for the teen. At least one time, Maxwell “instructed” her on how to massage Epstein. 

She told prosecutor Alison Moe, Epstein touched her “Ev..ver..y…where,” during her tearful testimony. 

“Initially, I felt special. I didn’t have anyone to look out for me,” she said.

At one point, Jane revealed the abuse to her boyfriend, and later to her brothers and sister, but never told authorities and alleges the abuse continued on and off until she was 22. That’s when she met someone and became engaged. 

Maxwell is facing charges of recruiting, grooming, and sexually abusing underage girls from 1994 to 1997. 

During Jane’s cross-examination by Maxwell’s attorney, she was challenged on her memory and whether or not she had publicly named herself as a victim of Epstein and Maxwell. 

Jane denied ever identifying herself publicly. 

“I’ve always just wanted to put this past me. I moved on with my life,” Jane said. “I work in the entertainment industry and victim shaming is still very present to this day.” Talking publicly could also affect her career, she said.

“I didn’t really want any part of it,” she said. “I just wanted it to go away.”

Just after Epstein’s death in 2019 was the first time Jane says she spoke with the FBI about her abuse. Also at that time, she filed a civil suit against Maxwell and Epstein and received a $5 million settlement in exchange for dropping the suit. 

The three additional victims are scheduled to testify in the trial, which is expected to last as long as six weeks.

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            Wednesday, Dec 1, 2021 ·  7:56:20 PM +00:00

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      Rebekah Sager
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    During cross-examination, Wednesday, “Jane” testified that Jeffrey Epstein took her to meet Donald Trump at his Florida club when she was just 14 years old.

She did not characterize what happened during the meeting or allege any impropriety just that she met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.