A new lawsuit filed against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell claims that she had “fulfilled Epstein’s compulsive need for sex with young females by preying on their personal, psychological, financial, and related vulnerabilities”, according to the court papers cited by the New York Post.
The suit was brought by Jennifer Araoz, Epstein’s key accuser who was the first person to sue his estate under New York’s Child Victims Act back in July 2019, but the claim was eventually thrown out as the convicted sex offender died in jail last summer. Araoz also earlier initiated another lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, the financier’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell and three household members who remained unnamed.
Now the 32-year-old woman has filed a new complaint under the Child Victims Act in a Manhattan Supreme court on Monday, accusing Maxwell of recruiting her as a sex slave at the age of 14 and using Epstein’s power and wealth as a method to groom young female victims.
According to Araoz, Maxwell was the one to ensure “organisational support to Epstein’s sex trafficking ring” while “identifying and hiring the recruiters of underage girls” for the financier’s “sexual pleasure” under the pretext of “massage” appointments.
The accuser believes that the Maxwell-Epstein recruiting enterprise eventually left her to suffer from “physical injury, pain, emotional distress, psychological trauma, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, loss of dignity, invasion of her privacy and a loss of her capacity to enjoy life”.
Ghislaine Maxwell has remained in solitary confinement in a Brooklyn detention facility since her arrest in July this year. The publishing heiress has been charged with six federal crimes, including sex trafficking, enticement of minors and perjury but was denied bail over a “high flight risk” cited by prosecutors.
Following the news that the scandalous socialite was denied a request to leave the prison, Araoz said that she was “once again able to take another breath as Ghislaine Maxwell will be in jail until at least her trial date next July”.
Maxwell, whose trial is currently scheduled for summer 2021, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought up against her by numerous accusers, who said she helped to recruit for Epstein’s sexual “slavery” back in mid 1990s. The discredited financier himself died in his prison cell in August 2019, with medical experts ruling the incident as a suicide.