Prince Andrew, Epstein Sex Abuse Accuser Reportedly Won't Testify at Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
08:39 GMT 23.11.2021 (Updated: 15:16 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
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Virginia Giuffre, an alleged sex abuse victim of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, earlier described Ghislaine Maxwell as “pure evil”, insisting that while the late tycoon was “a sick pedophile”, the British socialite was “the mastermind” in their trafficking ring.
Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts), an alleged victim of the late Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring, will not be testifying at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, reported Vanity Fair.
Maxwell, who has been charged with grooming and trafficking young girls for the convicted pedophile financier, faces a looming trial at federal court in New York. She has denied the charges, stating on 1 November, “I have not committed any crimes.”
At least four accusers are set to testify against Maxwell, with three of them granted anonymity. However, Giuffre will purportedly not take to the stand in Maxwell's trial. Giuffre, who lives in Australia with her husband and their three children, will hold off-the-record remote briefings for reporters during the trial, according to a source cited by the publication.
The woman who has pursued criminal and civil actions against both Epstein and Maxwell, is the only accuser to have offered up a slew of names of influential men who allegedly participated in the billionaire’s sex trafficking ring.
20 November 2021, 05:39 GMT
In depositions and in extensive media interviews, Virginia Giuffre claimed that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked her to engage in intimate relations with Queen Elizabeth II’s son, Prince Andrew, US lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former Democratic Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, financier Glenn Dubin, the late MIT computer scientist Marvin Minsky, and MC2 model agency cofounder Jean-Luc Brunel. All of the men mentioned have vehemently denied the allegations.
It is not yet clear why Virginia Giuffre is not being called to testify.
According to prosecutors, Maxwell had two unnamed co-conspirators, besides the tycoon himself. However, The New York Times reported on 16 November that the alleged co-conspirators are not “available” to testify.
“They’re not chasing Epstein’s money. If that’s what you want answered, you will be very disappointed,” a person close to the case was cited as saying.
22 November 2021, 17:10 GMT
A lawyer who has represented Epstein victims was reported as commenting: “What are we actually going to learn?”
‘Monster in Designer Clothing’
On 29 November lawyers are set to deliver opening statements in the highly anticipated trial of the woman that has been accused of being not only Epstein’s former lover, but his “madam” or pimp. Maxwell is being tried on six counts, including conspiracy to transport underage girls to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the Jeffrey Epstein associate accused of sex trafficking, stands before U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan with her defense team of Bobbi Sternheim and Christian Everdell during a pre-trial hearing ahead of jury selection, in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S., November 15, 2021
© REUTERS / JANE ROSENBERG
According to the indictment, which cites four victims, Maxwell is accused of grooming the women between 1994 and 2004, when they were minors, before delivering them to Epstein to be sexually abused. The disgraced British socialite faces more than 80 years in jail if convicted on all charges.
“The question at trial will be whether the defendant took steps to provide Jeffrey Epstein with access to girls under the age of 18, knowing that Epstein intended to have sexual contact with those girls,” prosecutors are quoted as writing in pretrial motions.
It is alleged that Maxwell’s tactic was to befriend unsuspecting girls by taking them on shopping outings and to the movies before introducing them to Jeffrey Epstein. The “victims”, the youngest of whom was said to have been 14 at the time, would then purportedly be subjected to sexual abuse, often in Ghislaine Maxwell's presence. Virginia Giuffre has described Maxwell as “pure evil”. In a July 2020 interview for CBS News she insisted Ghislaine Maxwell “did things even worse” than the financier and was the “mastermind” of her abuse.
“She is a monster. She's worse than Epstein. She did things even worse than Epstein did. She was vicious. She was evil. And she's a woman.”
Another alleged victim was cited as saying that the girls had believed “[Maxwell] was Mary Poppins because she acted like she was our friend and had that lovely English accent.”
“But she turned out to be a monster in designer clothing. She lured us in. She knew exactly what she was doing. I hope she rots in hell,” added the alleged victim.
‘Punished by Proxy'
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers are expected to argue she is being punished by proxy for Epstein's crimes because “someone has to pay for what he did,” a source was cited as saying. Maxwell's defence team have claimed that she is being “unfairly punished” and kept in inhumane conditions at New York's Metropolitan Detention Center.
Jeffrey Epstein Associate
© AP Photo / John Minchillo
Maxwell was arrested on 2 July 2020 while in hiding at a remote property in New Hampshire, and has been incarcerated in jail since. The daughter of the debt-ridden publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, who officially died of drowning in 1991, has since been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, in conditions her legal team and her brother have slammed as "reprehensible".
Five bail requests have been made, all of them denied by US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, with prosecutors citing the woman’s citizenship in three countries and significant wealth as factors making her a "significant flight risk".
Maxwell is believed to have had a romantic relationship with Epstein for several years in the early 1990s, remaining closely associated with him for decades after. According to US media reports, Maxwell and Epstein had friendships with several prominent individuals in elite circles of politics, business and law, including former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York City in 2019 after being charged with multiple child sex offences, with officials declaring that he had committed suicide by hanging.
