Virginia Giuffre has accused Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged “madame” Ghislaine Maxwell of coercing underage girls as young as 15 into sex, according to newly-released court filings.
A May 2016 deposition by Giuffre, Epstein’s most prominent accuser, was made public on Thursday night as part of a trove of documents from her civil lawsuit against Maxwell.
Giuffre, who claimed that Maxwell had recruited her to work as a masseuse for Epstein, said in her deposition that the British socialite had sex with underage girls “virtually every day” when she was around her on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
“There were blondes, there were brunettes, there were redheads,” she told a US district court in New York. “They were all beautiful girls. I would say the ages ranged between 15 and 21.”
Epstein’s alleged “sex slave” said she could only guess the age of the girls with whom Maxwell had sex but “some of them looked really young”.
She added: “Some of them, I wouldn’t say looks old or anything like that, but it’s hard to gauge another person's age without really asking them. But some of them looked younger than me and some of them looked older than me.”
Giuffre didn’t believe that any of the girls allegedly sexually abused by Maxwell were “truly willing participants”.
“I believe we were all there for one purpose, and that was to keep Jeffrey and Ghislaine happy and to do our jobs, which was giving them erotic massages and keeping them pleased sexually,” she said, adding that their wealthy masters issued “indirect threats” to make sure the girls complied.
The Giuffre v. Maxwell defamation suit was settled for an undisclosed sum in Giuffre’s favour in 2017. Maxwell’s attorneys have argued against the release of the documents from that suit because they contain “intrusive questions about her sex life” and are “extremely personal, confidential and subject to considerable abuse by the media”.
Maxwell, who was once linked to Epstein romantically, was arrested on 2 July on six counts related to enticement of minors, sex trafficking, and perjury. She has not been charged with sexual abuse.
The 58-year-old media heiress faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial, which is scheduled for next July, in a federal jail in Brooklyn.