The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 13NEWS
testifying under her own name. Prosecu-
tors had originally listed both as “minor
victims”, but Judge Nathan has con-
cluded that Kate and Farmer were over
the age of consent when they encoun-
tered Maxwell.
For the prosecution, their stories show
a pattern of behaviour: Maxwell’s
methods and her motivations. Jane
recalled Maxwell and Epstein accosting
her as she sat at a picnic table in Michigan
in 1994, at a summer camp for aspiring
performers.
In the months that followed, they took
her shopping at Victoria’s Secret and to
the cinema, she said. She said Maxwell
asked her if she had a boyfriend, advising
that “once you f*** them, you can always
f*** them again because they’re grandfa-
thered in”.
Lisa Rocchio, a clinical and forensic
psychologist prosecutors called as an
expert witness, said sex abusers befriend
children by making them feel special, by
buying them gifts. Then, they begin “nor-
malising sexual material”, perhaps by
talking about sex, or telling jokes, she
said. At the same time, they begin “nor-
malising touch”, sitting close, giving hugs
or perhaps a massage.
Maxwell’s defence team has argued
that she is being made a scapegoat after
Epstein, 66, killed himself in custody in
New York in 2019 while awaiting trial for
multiple child sex offences.
In the end, they were forced to rest
their case after calling only nine out of a
possible 35 witnesses.
Her lawyers were more successful in
cross-examination, in setting out their
argument that Epstein was a compelling,
magnetic personality, who manipulated
others and kept secrets from them. They
say he kept secrets from Maxwell too; he
had other girlfriends, he sometimes trav-
elled without her.
They also claim her accusers are moti-
vated by multimillion-pound compensa-
tion payouts from a victims’ fund set up
by Epstein’s estate and have “false mem-
ories” of what happened to them.
@dipeshgadherCamilla Long, page 33pare for a trial in which prosecutors have
produced nearly three million pages of
evidence.
If Maxwell is convicted this week or if
the jury fails to return a verdict before the
court rises for the festive break, she could
face Christmas Day — and her landmark
birthday — alone.
The spread of Covid and a poor vacci-
nation rate has placed the Metropolitan
Detention Centre on the highest state of
alert and her brother believes that
inmates are likely to be barred from
receiving any family visits.
Asked how he thinks his sister will feel
if found guilty, he said: “How would you
feel? Her right to proper due process and
the presumption of innocence has been
completely abrogated.”
Maxwell’s siblings have already filed a
complaint to the United Nations workingAs build-ups to a landmark birthday go, it
is not perhaps what Ghislaine Maxwell
would have planned in better times.
Jurors at her child sex-trafficking trial
in New York could be sent out as early as
tomorrow and come back with a verdict
before Christmas Day, when the British
socialite also happens to turn 60.
If found guilty of all six charges she
faces, Maxwell could be jailed for almost
80 years. She has denied all the charges.
Yet even before she knows her fate, her
lawyers have started plotting a potential
fightback.
Central to any appeal is likely to be the
impact of the conditions she has endured
on remand at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan
Detention Centre since her arrest 18
months ago in July 2020.
Maxwell’s older brother, Ian, believes
her incarceration in virtual solitary con-
finement while having a torch shone into
her tiny cell every 15 minutes at night by
guards “weakened” her “physical and
mental state”, and made it difficult for
her to give evidence in her own defence.
On Friday evening, Maxwell told the
court in Manhattan that she would not be
taking the witness stand, claiming the US
government had not proved her guilt
“beyond reasonable doubt”.
Speaking shortly before the develop-
ment, her brother said: “The fact that
Ghislaine might not be able to take the
stand in such circumstances... on
account of the torturous conditions she
has been subjected to for over 530 days is
tantamount to a denial of justice.”
He added that her inability to testify
was “yet another — and perhaps the most
egregious — such instance in a lengthy
catalogue”.
Maxwell’s lawyers and family had
feared that her “fragile” mindset would
allow the prosecution to run rings
around her in any cross-examination.
They have also consistently argued
that Covid restrictions in prison, limiting
face-to-face contact with her lawyers,
have hampered Maxwell’s ability to pre-‘Torturous’ jail conditions give
Maxwell’s family hope of fightback
As the Epstein sex-trafficking court case nears its end, relatives say she was too weak to have a fair trial or give evidence
Dipesh Gadher
Home Affairs Correspondent
Will Pavia and Keiran SouthernCells measure
8ft x 10ft or 10ft x 12ftBunk beds
are welded
to the wallGhislaine Maxwell is being
held at the notorious
Brooklyn metropolitan
detention centreHARD CELL
She is disturbed
every 15
minutes at night
by guards
shining a
flashlight into
her cell to check
she has not
harmed herselfOne-piece
stainless steel
sink and
lavatory with
no seatRooms have a
narrow window
to let in a tiny
amount of lightgroup on arbitrary detention, denounc-
ing the decision by the trial judge, Alison
Nathan, to repeatedly deny her bail.
The trial was scheduled to last six
weeks and continue into January. How-
ever, prosecutors went through their wit-
ness list faster than anticipated.
The case for the prosecution hangs
on the testimony of two alleged vic-
tims, referred to in court as Jane and
Carolyn, who say they were sexually
abused by Jeffrey Epstein, the late
billionaire paedophile, when they
were 14. They say Maxwell helped to
arrange it, and, to varying degrees,
that she was involved in it herself.
Their testimony is supported by
accounts from two others: a British
woman who testified under the pseu-
donym Kate and an American named
Annie Farmer who is the only accuserKevin and Isabel
Maxwell attending
the trial of their
sister, who they
say was unable to
defend herself
properly
because of the
harsh
conditions in
her tiny cellJANE ROSENBERG/REUTERS