What Happened: Ghislaine Maxwell, close associate and “partner” of Jeffrey Epstein has been hit with more charges of child trafficking. This time, she is accused of grooming a 14-year old girl to engage in sexual acts with Epstein from 2001 to 2004 at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Maxwell still faces other charges that include transporting a minor for the purposes of criminal sexual activity and conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. Maxwell was arrested last July in New Hampshire — nearly a year after Epstein was charged and detained.
According to NPR,
Prosecutors said Maxwell would gain this victim’s trust by asking her about family and other aspects of her life and that Maxwell used a similar method on several other victims of Epstein, according to court documents.
Maxwell would normalize inappropriate and abusive conduct by talking about sexual topics in front of the teen girl or by being present in the massage room when the girl was naked. Epstein’s employees, including Maxwell at times, would call the victim from various locations at her home in Florida to set up an appointment to massage Epstein.
Afterward, Epstein, his employees, or Maxwell would pay the girl hundreds of dollars. From New York, Epstein’s inner circle would send the girl gifts, including lingerie.
Maxwell and Epstein reportedly encouraged the girl to bring her friends or to recruit other young women to massage the much-older financier.
There are some who would say that at the age of 14, you know what you are doing. For example, in 1997, well known American lawyer and political commentator Alan Dershowitz published an article titled “Statutory Rape is an Outdated Concept.” In it, he argued for lowering the age of consent to the age of 14. He has been implicated in the latest events pertaining to the Ghislaine Maxwell case. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of multiple accusers well known for her claims and picture with Prince Andrew, claimed to have sexually engaged with both Dershowitz and Andrew as a minor.
At that age, one is clearly open to manipulation and brainwashing. At the age of 14, one is still a child. This is why so many victims suffer from trauma when they reach full adulthood. At the time, they are not able to fully grasp what is going on and again, they are heavily manipulated and “groomed.
