A lawyer who represented victims of Jeffrey Epstein has admitted he ‘felt sorry’ for Ghislaine Maxwell, having commented on the pair’s crimes in a new Channel 4 documentary.
Maxwell was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in their sex trafficking operation, having been accused of recruiting and grooming teenagers for Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
While she denies the allegations, she was found guilty on five of the six counts she had been charged with, with the jury convicting her of conspiracy to entice and transport individuals under 17 with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, as well as the sex trafficking of individuals under the age of 17 and 18. The only count she wasn't convicted on was 'Enticement of an Individual Under the Age of 17 to Travel with Intent to Engage in Illegal Sexual Activity'.
In Ghislaine Maxwell: The Making of a Monster, a three-part documentary that concluded tonight, we hear how Maxwell would ‘recruit’ women for Epstein to sate his need for ‘three orgasms a day’.
Virginia Giuffre was just 16 years old when she was approached by Maxwell, who offered her the chance to train as a travelling massage therapist for Epstein – who she said sexually abused her from the very first massage, and that she was later trafficked to his wealthy friends.
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After Maxwell called Giuffre a liar over the claims, she sued the socialite for defamation in 2015, with the case being settled in Giuffre’s favour two years later for an undisclosed sum.
In the new documentary, her lawyer David Boies revealed that they ended up paying ‘a lot of money’ to resolve the issue, having found himself experiencing conflicting feelings towards Maxwell during the case.
Boies, who has also represented a number of other survivors, said: “The result of the defamation case was very important to Virginia, not only because of the economic security it gave her, but also a vindication. Remember, she had been accused by Maxwell of making this all up.”
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He continued: “I sometimes felt angry at the way she dismissed the victims of the sex trafficking, but there were times when I felt sorry for her, too.
“You know, I tried to understand what led somebody to do these things. I would never describe her as a victim, but I would describe her as a damaged human being. And what caused that damage, I don’t know.
“I’ve never been able to understand why, after our civil litigation was resolved, Maxwell did not go to the prosecutors and try to do a deal. She could have given them Epstein. Now, maybe she was just still too under Epstein’s sway, but she somehow almost seemed to put that out of her mind and go forward as if it didn’t happen. She should have known that her days were numbered.”
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Later in the episode, Boies and his colleague Sigrid McCawley reflected on Maxwell's role within the sex trafficking ring that had turned their clients' lives upside down at such a young age.
"Maxwell did not do this because Epstein told her to," McCawley said.
"She did it in her own agency, her own will. She chose to perpetrate these crimes against young victims, and she benefited from these crimes."
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Boies added: “Epstein and Maxwell could not have accomplished what they did acting alone. They could not have had the scope and scale and duration of the sexual trafficking and abuse.
“Their collaborators, their enablers, their co-conspirators are all people who need to be brought to justice.”
Watch Ghislaine Maxwell: The Making of a Monster on All4 now.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org
Topics: Documentaries, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein
Jess Hardiman