NEW YORK: A defiant Ghislaine Maxwell said that prosecutors had failed to prove her guilty of sex crimes, as her defense wound up in a trial that heard lurid claims she groomed minors for abuse by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking for the first time since her sensational trial opened late last month, the 59-year-old British socialite took the stand only to say she would not be testifying.
“Your honour, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no need for me to testify,” Maxwell told New York judge Alison Nathan.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey said the parties had reached a consensus to rest the case later on Friday.
The daughter of ex-newspaper baron Robert Maxwell faces an effective life sentence if convicted by the jury of six counts of enticing and transporting minors for sex with her long-time companion Epstein.
The prosecution wound up on Friday last week, after taking just 10 days to question its witnesses.
They sought to portray Maxwell as Epstein’s partner-in-crime, recruiting young girls to be sexually exploited by the American money-manager, who killed himself in jail two years ago while awaiting his own trial.
Two women said they were as young as 14 when Maxwell allegedly began grooming them and arranging for them to give massages to Epstein that ended in sexual activity.
One, identified only as “Jane,” detailed how Maxwell recruited her at summer camp and made her feel “special.” She said sexual encounters with Epstein became routine, with Maxwell sometimes present.
Another, going by “Carolyn,” said she was usually paid $300 after sexual encounters with Epstein, often by Maxwell herself.
The alleged crimes occurred between 1994 and 2004.
‘False memories’
Maxwell’s defense, which began its case on Thursday, questioned the women’s ability to remember quarter-century-old events. They also brought up past drug use by two of them.
But after indicating they planned to call 35 witnesses, the defense had called just nine to the stand in the first day and a half — with others dropped, delayed or otherwise unavailable.
An increasingly exasperated judge instructed them earlier Friday to produce the promised witnesses or rest their case.
Among the defense witnesses brought forward was the psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, an expert on “false memories,” whose testimony was intended to challenge the recollections of the case’s four accusers.
Another witness heard Friday was a former Miss Sweden who dated Epstein between 1983 and 1991.
Eva Andersson-Dubin said she never saw any inappropriate conduct between Epstein and teenage women.
But she also admitted under cross-examination that she has memory problems.
“It’s very hard for me to remember anything far back and sometimes I can’t even remember things from last month. My family notices it. I notice it. It’s been an issue,” the 60-year-old told prosecutor Allison Moe.
Nathan had earlier rejected a request that three other witnesses be allowed to testify anonymously. She also rejected the defense’s attempts to call two lawyers for accusers of Epstein to the stand.
And the case was to be rested later Friday after the defense withdrew requests to enforce the subpoena of a witness identified as “Kelly,” and put a London pub landlord on the stand.
