USA: the EPSTEIN CASE

 A sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell hanging in Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion appears in one of dozens of never-before-seen photographs submitted into evidence by prosecutors in the socialite’s trial.

© AP

In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell is at the defence table (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

- AP

The images were taken during an FBI raid on Epstein’s Florida home in 2005 and show his bedroom, offices, and a massage table where he received sexualised massages.

The sketch of Ms Maxwell, dubbed the “lady of the house”, appears in a bathroom, while there are several drawings of naked women hanging in other rooms.

The photos were entered into evidence in Ms Maxwell’s trial in a Manhattan federal courthouse on charges of underage sex-trafficking.

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Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s underage sex-trafficking trial entered dozens of images of Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion taken by the FBI during a raid in 2005 (US District Attorney’s Office)

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Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s underage sex-trafficking trial entered dozens of images of Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion taken by the FBI during a raid in 2005 (US District Attorney’s Office)

Prosecutors allege she groomed girls as young as 14 and “served them up” to Epstein, who died in 2019 aged 66 while awaiting trial.

Ms Maxwell faces six charges; one each of enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking of a minor, and three counts of conspiracy related to the other counts.

She has denied all the charges.

During the first week of Ms Maxwell’s trial, the Palm Beach property’s former house manager Juan Alessi testified that a 58-page manual was distributed to Epstein’s household staff containing an exhaustive list of rules.

Copies of the manual were kept in Epstein and Ms Maxwell’s desks and listed exacting rules on cleaning, personal cleanliness and how to interact with guests.

Under a section titled “Grooming and guest relations”, staff were told: “See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed to you.”

Mr Alessi said he was “supposed to be blind, deaf, to say nothing”.

© Provided by The Independent Jeffrey Epstein’s massage table where he received sexualised massage tables (US District Attorney’s Office) © Provided by The Independent A desk in Epstein’s Palm Beach property (US District Attorney’s Office)

Earlier on Monday, the sixth day of the trial, a woman known as Kate testified that she began giving Epstein sexualised massages in Ms Maxwell’s London townhouse at age 17.

She was later flown to Epstein’s Palm Beach property where she was told to dress in a schoolgirl uniform to give him a sexualised massage.

Kate recalled seeing “lots of photos of young girls... they were unclothed”.

Kate was over the age of consent in Britain at the time she met Epstein, and US district judge Alison Nathan instructed the jury before her testimony that any sexual encounters she described were not “illegal sex acts”.

On Monday afternoon, a JP Morgan Chase executive director took the stand and detailed $30m in transactions sent by Epstein to Ms Maxwell between 1999 and 2007.

The transfers included one of $18.3m in August 1999, and another of $7.6m in June 2007.

The cash transfers were funded by share sales by Epstein.

On the same day as the 2007 transfer, Ms Maxwell transferred almost the same amount to a company she controlled called Air Ghislaine.

Documents shown to the jury showed she used it to put a downpayment on a green Sidorsky S76C helicopter. The chopper was fitted out with an “executive finish”, the documents showed.

The court had earlier heard that Ms Maxwell, 59, was an experienced helicopter pilot.

The trial continues.

The INDEPENDENT