Ghislaine Maxwell flew around the world on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jets with him and his alleged victims, including the woman who has accused the Duke of York of having sex with her when she was under age, a court in New York was told yesterday. David Rodgers was first hired as Epstein’s personal pilot in 1991. He testified that Maxwell had been present on flights that also included girls who alleged Epstein, a wealthy financier, sexually abused them for years.
Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, 38, was on multiple flights with Maxwell, Rodgers said, while a woman who testified under the alias Jane in Manhattan federal court earlier in the case was also on board at times, it is alleged. Giuffre has accused Prince Andrew, 61, of abusing her, an allegation he denies.
The jury in Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial was told yesterday that she had been on multiple flights with Roberts, including to Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands and to his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
It is alleged under-age girls were abused by Epstein at both locations. Maxwell, 59, denies enticing and transporting minors to Epstein from 1994 to 2004. In 2008 he was convicted of child sex offences. The defence has sought to fight the prosecution’s claim that she was instrumental in the abuse.
Jane was also on board flights with Maxwell and Epstein, Rodgers said. He told the hearing he had first met Roberts in December 2000 on a flight from Palm Beach, Florida, to New Jersey.
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Rodgers said that while working for Epstein he flew aircraft including a Gulfstream G2B and a Boeing 727. Both aircraft allowed passengers to travel in privacy and he could not view the cabin while in the air, Rodgers said.
With the help of Maurene Comey, for the prosecution, the pilot talked the jury through his flight logs, which featured details of journeys, including dates and the identities of those on board. The names of most passengers were not revealed in court.
Rodgers also recalled his first meeting with Maxwell. He said that she had been 29 at the time, describing her as having a “great personality”. She and Epstein, who killed himself in custody aged 66 in 2019 awaiting trial, had been “romantically involved”, Rodgers said.
Rodgers said that he had visited some of Maxwell’s homes, including a “very large residence” near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Rodgers testified that the British socialite moved to a smaller home, a studio apartment, after the death of her father, the media mogul Robert Maxwell, in 1991. Rodgers said that she later moved to another large property, a five-storey townhouse.
The court also heard from Shawn, the boyfriend of Carolyn, a witness who appeared during Tuesday’s hearing. She testified to being sexually abused by Epstein and alleged Maxwell once touched her bare breasts and buttocks.
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Shawn said that he had been 17 and Carolyn 14 when they started going out. He said that Roberts had introduced Carolyn to Epstein, telling her she could make money by giving him massages. He said Carolyn began visiting Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach and that he would often take her, although he never went inside.
His only meeting with Epstein was on his driveway, Shawn said, when the financier was showing off a car. Shawn said that he would drive Carolyn to the massages and she would return with $100 notes, which he said they used to buy drugs including cocaine. He told the court that he had never met Maxwell. However, he appeared to corroborate Carolyn’s testimony that she called Maxwell by her surname because she could not pronounce Ghislaine.
Carolyn was a child when she began giving Epstein massages, Shawn said, adding that she had dropped out of school. He admitted that he would often help to arrange the massages.
Shawn, who the court heard had a criminal record including charges for gun and drugs possession, admitted to bringing two other girls to Epstein’s mansion. Both were girlfriends of his, he told the court, and he was in a relationship with them at the same time as he was with Carolyn. Shawn, who had a son with Carolyn, said that he now rarely spoke to her.
From tomorrow, if the prosecution rests its case as expected this evening, it will be the turn of Maxwell’s heavy-hitting legal team to tear at the fabric of this story, summoning expert witnesses to call into question the memories of the four accusers and the idea that a victim may be groomed by another person for abuse. They will suggest that the accusers were manipulated by lawyers and the thought of a cash award from a compensation scheme set up by Epstein’s estate.
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Maxwell’s defence has subpoenaed lawyers for the alleged victims, although it remains unclear whether they would be able to call them to testify about conversations that might be shielded by lawyer-client privilege. They also indicated they may call two brothers of the accuser who testified under the pseudonym Jane, in an effort to show that her story has changed.
Bobbi Sternheim, Maxwell’s lead lawyer, portrayed her client in an opening statement as a “companion” of Epstein who separated from him while remaining his employee, charged with managing his property portfolio. She said Epstein “spent time with other women”.
Cross-examining Juan Alessi, the former house manager of Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion last week, Maxwell’s lawyer, Jeffrey Pagliuca, asked whether he was required to take down photographs of Maxwell when Epstein arrived at the house with another woman. Alessi said it happened “three or four times” but could not say whether it was because “Mr Epstein was interested in the other women”.
Twice, without further explanation, Maxwell’s lawyers have suggested that she became pregnant during her time with Epstein. Last week Christian Everdell asked Epstein’s former pilot, Lawrence Visoski, if at any time from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s she “appeared to you to be pregnant”. On Tuesday, Pagliuca, for the defence, told an alleged victim testifying under the name Carolyn that “one of your memories about Ms Maxwell is you claim that you saw a photograph of her in Epstein’s house, pregnant; correct?” to which she replied: “Nude and pregnant.”
How this might feature in the defence case is unclear, though occasionally there have been hints that lawyers would cast Maxwell as Epstein’s victim.
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Bradley Simon, a New York defence lawyer not involved in the case, said he expected her lawyers to argue “that Epstein was so all powerful that he manipulated her and she was under his spell. If I were her attorney, I would make an argument like that.”
The prosecution succeeded in placing before the jury evidence seized from Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2019, including 17 photographs showing them together as a couple over many years. The images included one of them relaxing at the Queen’s log cabin in Balmoral, sitting on the same bench where the Queen has been photographed.
Judge Alison Nathan said she would allow the photographs despite fierce protests from Maxwell’s lawyers.
Whom the defence might call to counter this evidence is unclear, although it seems unlikely that Maxwell will testify in her own defence.
The trial continues.
