Maxwell and Epstein were ‘partners in crime’, US prosecutor says
Al JazeeraGhislaine Maxwell is on trial for recruiting and grooming teen girls for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse. Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were “partners in crime” in the sexual abuse of teenage girls, a prosecutor in the United States has said, as opening statements were delivered in the British socialite’s highly publicised trial in New York. Maxwell’s lawyers have said that prosecutors, unable to convict Epstein, are using the daughter of late British media magnate Robert Maxwell as a scapegoat. In some cases, Epstein or Maxwell would pay them cash or offer to pay for their travel or education, and Epstein sometimes masturbated or touched the girls’ genitals during the massages, prosecutors said. The defendant and Epstein lured their victims with a promise of a bright future, only to sexually exploit them,” said Pomerantz, the prosecutor, adding that Maxwell “was involved in every detail of Epstein’s life”.