A Florida victim of Jeffrey Epstein who was sexually abused up to three times a week for years testified on Tuesday that his alleged collaborator, Ghislaine Maxwell, routinely called her to schedule “massages” and even invited the girl to the financier’s private island.
“Carolyn,” who is Minor Victim-4 in the criminal case against Maxwell, says Epstein molested her more than 100 times between 2001 and 2004, and that several other people in the late sex offender’s orbit knew what was happening within his Palm Beach mansion.
She was only 14 when the abuse began. Each time she visited, she received a few hundred dollars after giving Epstein a massage that ended with him masturbating while touching her. “I was young and $300 was a lot of money to me,” said Carolyn, who is testifying under her first name at Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial, now in its second week.
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According to Carolyn, both Epstein and Maxwell knew she was underage because, after a year of abuse, they’d pressured her to travel with them to Epstein’s compound in the U.S. Virgin Islands. “I told him I was only 15 and I couldn’t leave,” Carolyn testified.
Carolyn testified that the couple knew of her painful history of child molestation and rape—she says her grandfather raped her starting when she was 4—and that her mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol. “I told Ghislaine Maxwell that my mom was an alcoholic and that I’d been molested,” Carolyn said. “Random personal things.”
She told Epstein about her upbringing, too, informing him “that it was kind of screwed up” and her mother struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.
Carolyn said she was addicted to cocaine and pain pills and used the money from Epstein to buy more drugs. She dropped out in seventh grade and never returned to school.
On one occasion, Maxwell allegedly entered Epstein’s massage room while Carolyn was nude and busy setting it up. Carolyn said Maxwell felt her hips, buttocks, and breasts and told her she “had a great body for Mr. Epstein.” Carolyn testified that Maxwell groped her breasts before leaving the room.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Sarah Kellen in a photo provided by prosecutors.
U.S. GovernmentWhile on the witness stand, Carolyn said Epstein’s alleged co-conspirator, Sarah Kellen, called her to book sexualized “massage” appointments and arranged travel for the girl since she didn’t have a driver’s license. At one point, Carolyn testified, Kellen snapped nude photos of her at Epstein’s direction when no one else was around. She said Kellen called her and told her she “would get paid $500 to $600 if she could take pictures of me.”
For the first year or so, Maxwell would allegedly call Carolyn; Kellen took over the scheduling duties after that, Carolyn told the jury. The women also had phone numbers for Carolyn’s mother and boyfriend Shawn just in case they couldn’t reach the girl.
Carolyn said she was introduced to Epstein and Maxwell by another victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who invited her to the money manager's lair on El Brillo Way. It was spring turning into summer in 2001 when Virginia drove Carolyn to the house for the first time.
Once they arrived, Giuffre announced they would get cash for massaging Epstein, whom she described as a “friend” of hers. (Carolyn testified that she met Giuffre through Shawn, who was 17, and a buddy of Giuffre’s then-boyfriend, Tony.)
Carolyn said she and Giuffre entered through the kitchen and that “an older lady” with an “accent” and “shoulder length black hair” greeted them; she identified that woman as Maxwell and said she couldn’t pronounce the socialite’s first name, so she usually called the adult woman by her surname.
“You can bring her upstairs and show her what to do,” Maxwell allegedly told Giuffre.
Giuffre took off her clothes when they got to the massage room, Carolyn recalled, adding that she didn’t feel comfortable getting naked so she kept her bra and underwear on. She testified that Epstein came in, brushed his teeth, then laid face down on the massage table. The teens massaged Epstein’s legs and after about 45 minutes, he turned over and Giuffre got on top of him and they started having sex, Carolyn told jurors.
“I was sitting on the couch right in front of them,” Carolyn said, choking up on the stand.
As the teens left Epstein’s home, Maxwell allegedly collected Carolyn’s phone number and so began the middle-schooler’s years of sexual exploitation. Maxwell, she said, would call her from New York and announce when she and Epstein were flying into Palm Beach.
When assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey asked Carolyn why she continued visiting Epstein’s home, she replied that she used the money to buy marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol. Sometimes her own mother dropped her off at Epstein’s house, she added.
Maxwell allegedly asked Carolyn what she wanted to do for a living, and she answered she wanted to be a massage therapist. The heiress also inquired whether Carolyn had ever used sex toys. Carolyn said no.
Carolyn said that she was eventually fully nude during massage sessions and that Maxwell saw her naked body, as did two of Epstein’s friends.
During one massage session, she said, Epstein pushed a button on his phone and a slender blonde girl walked in who was fully nude. Carolyn said she had a “really strong accent” and that Epstein had sex with her while the girl performed oral sex on Carolyn.
Another time, Epstein brought in a brunette girl who was a model.
She testified that Maxwell handed her $300 a few times after these encounters and, during one visit, asked for her address. Soon after, Epstein sent Carolyn a massage book “for dummies” and concert tickets to the rock band Incubus.
The couple also allegedly delivered Carolyn Victoria’s Secret lingerie via FedEx.
Epstein requested that Carolyn bring over younger friends, and she ended up recruiting three girls who were around her age. She said she was paid $600 for doing so.
“He asked me if I had any friends my age or younger,” Carolyn testified. “I told him I don’t hang out with younger people but I have some friends I can ask.”
Comey questioned Carolyn about whether any of the massages weren’t sexual.
“Something sexual happened every single time,” Carolyn replied.
Asked if she took a break from visiting Epstein, Carolyn began to cry as she described running away from home with Shawn when she was 16. The teens stole her mother’s car, she said, and drove to Georgia. Carolyn got pregnant soon after.
Carolyn had her baby in March 2004 and returned to Epstein’s home a few times, desperate for money to help pay her child’s expenses. “He asked me if I had younger friends and I said no. That’s when I realized I was too old,” Carolyn said.
Comey asked why she stopped going to Epstein’s Florida estate.
“I became too old,” Carolyn replied.
“How old were you?” Comey said.
“18,” she replied.
The prosecution also asked about Carolyn’s troubles with the law, including getting arrested in 2011 for cocaine possession and also for possessing stolen property.
Carolyn detailed how she’s on methadone to cope with opioid addiction and other prescription drugs, including one for schizophrenia, because she’s paranoid her children will be kidnapped by sex traffickers.
In 2008, Carolyn sued Epstein in state court “because of all the emotional damage he did to me.” She said her lawsuit named Kellen as a defendant too.
“She was an adult,” Carolyn said. “She knew what was happening.”
During a tense cross examination, Maxwell's lawyer Jeffrey Pagliuca questioned Carolyn about why she didn’t mention Maxwell when speaking to the FBI about Epstein in 2007. He said Carolyn told the feds about Giuffre, Kellen, Shawn, and an unnamed chef.
“She was not a subject of the discussion,” Carolyn said, later adding: “I was not asked about her.”
Pagliuca also pointed out that Carolyn filed two lawsuits in 2008 and 2009 against Epstein and Kellen but those complaints didn’t name Maxwell as an accomplice.
When Carolyn received mental health counseling around 2003, Pagliuca added, she didn’t mention Maxwell either.
The defense lawyer—who said Carolyn’s last name in court despite the judge’s order to keep victims’ identities anonymous—also worked to highlight inconsistent statements about her drug use. (Last week, Pagliuca said the real name of Jane Doe, or Minor Victim-1, aloud and apologized, calling it an accident.)
The attorney said Carolyn had previously indicated, in a 2009 deposition, that she used cocaine while visiting Epstein’s residence. He claimed that prior statement contradicted her testimony at trial on Tuesday.
Pagliuca asked Carolyn why her application to the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program stated that Epstein penetrated her with his fingers and by using sex toys, when Carolyn said in court that such acts didn’t occur.
When Pagliuca questioned Carolyn about her $3.5 million settlement award, of which she received roughly $2.8 million, she interrupted him, saying: “No money will ever fix what’s happened to me.”
Pagliuca then suggested to Carolyn that she could be held criminally liable and lose her settlement award if the information she submitted to the victim fund was false.
Before Pagliuca wrapped up his cross examination, he lobbed a bizarre question that raised eyebrows among spectators in an overflow courtroom: Did Carolyn previously tell the government she saw a photo of Maxwell pregnant?
Carolyn reviewed an image presented by Pagliuca and answered, “That is not the photo.”
Comey followed up by asking Carolyn whether she wrote her own lawsuits and victim fund application. She replied no.
The prosecutor then asked how old Carolyn was when she first saw Epstein and Maxwell. She answered that she was 13 years old.
“Did anyone tell you what to say here?” Comey asked.
Carolyn answered no before bursting into tears and adding of Maxwell, “What she did was wrong.”
