With tremendous courage, two British victims of Ghislaine Maxwell went to court to speak in harrowing detail about their horrific orders at the hands of the child sex predator – and the mental torment they continue to endure.
A British woman who testified under the name ‘Kate’, and Sarah Ransome – who was not included in charges at Maxwell’s trial late last year – wrote victim statements detailing in graphic detail how their lives had been ruined by the fallen socialite.
They made it a point to go to the New York courthouse and read excerpts of their impact statements in person before the judge sentenced Maxwell to 20 years in prison for recruiting girls for herself and her former boyfriend, pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, to annoy.
The British victims were among four Maxwell survivors who wanted to come face to face with the Oxford-trained sex trafficker and tell the world how her crimes had affected them.
Ransome even provided the court with shocking images of her in hospital after a failed suicide attempt as she struggled to come to terms with the abuse she had endured at the hands of Maxwell. An impact statement from Prince Andrew’s teenage prosecutor, Virginia Roberts, now known by her married name Giuffre and who was unable to attend court due to a “medical issue,” was read by her lawyer.
Sarah Ransom
Miss Ransome, 37, whose father is the Scottish Lord Macpherson, said she was raped up to three times a day during months locked up on Epstein’s private Caribbean island after being tricked into his filthy web of abuse by Maxwell. She said in her impact statement, “I became nothing more than a human sex toy with a heartbeat and soul for the amusement of Epstein, Maxwell and others. On a visit to [Epstein’s private island]the sexual demands, degradation and humiliation became so horrendous that I tried to escape by attempting to jump off a cliff into shark-infested waters.
“They collapsed and entangled us in their inverted, twisted world of rape, rape, and more rape. Like Hotel California, you could check into the Epstein-Maxwell dungeon of sexual hell, but you could never leave. Ghislaine forced me into Epstein’s room with her own hand to be raped.”
‘I never married and have no children, something I’ve always wanted, even as a little girl.
“Since the abuse, I’ve attempted suicide twice, both nearly fatal.”
Elizabeth Steino
Attacked by Maxwell after she moved to New York in 1991 at age 18, aspiring to work in the fashion industry, Miss Stein said she was first abused by the British socialite and Epstein in a hotel — on the very first day she met Ghislaine.
“That night at the hotel was the first of many sexual assaults on me,” she said. “After that I tried to pretend everything was normal…” Miss Stein said she was “assaulted, raped and trafficked countless times” over a three-year period after Epstein – who died in prison in 2019 – and Maxwell incarcerated her. ring their sex trade by “grabbing her vulnerability.”
She had to have an abortion after getting pregnant by one of the “countless” men who raped her while being trafficked to their friends. “Things happened that were so traumatic that I can’t talk about them to this day; I don’t even have the vocabulary to describe them.
“In the most literal sense of the word, Epstein and Maxwell terrified me. They told me that if I told anyone, no one would believe me and if they did, they would kill me and the people closest to me. After meeting Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, it felt like someone turned out the lights for my soul.”
Annie Boer
The fourth and final prosecutor in Maxwell’s trial told jurors how the privately trained predator gave her a nude massage and groped her as a teenager on Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico.
“One of the most painful and ongoing consequences of Maxwell and Epstein’s abuse has been a loss of confidence in myself, my perceptions and my instincts,” she said.
“When predators groom and then abuse or exploit children and other vulnerable people, in a sense they train them to distrust themselves. When a line is crossed or an expectation is violated, you tell yourself, “Someone who cares enough to do all these nice things would certainly not try to harm me too.”
“This thinking pattern is insidious, so these seeds of self-doubt took root even as I met my sister [Maria] were also harmed by them and found out years later that many others had been exploited.
For years these memories led to significant self-blame, minimization and guilt.
“I blamed myself for believing that these predators really wanted to help me. I felt enormously guilty when I heard what other girls and young women had been through at the hands of Maxwell and Epstein.
‘I remember physically shaking at my desk after seeing Maxwell’s photo with Virginia [Roberts] and Prince Andrew, because it became clear to me how their plan had gone further.
Maxwell had many opportunities to clean up, but instead kept making choices that did more damage. When my sister and I first spoke to the media about what had happened to us, Maxwell lied about us and threatened Maria, helping to stop investigations into Epstein’s behavior so they could continue to harm children and young women together. .’
Virginia Roberts
Prince Andrew’s teenage sex offender Miss Roberts – now based in Australia – is the most famous Epstein victim of them all. Although she did not testify at Maxwell’s trial, the jury found Miss Roberts to be one of her sex trafficking victims. In her impact statement, the American swore to Maxwell, “If you ever get out of jail, I’ll be here, watching you and making sure you never hurt anyone else.”
She also told her: “Jeffrey Epstein was undoubtedly a terrible pedophile. But I would never have met Jeffrey Epstein if it weren’t for you.
“For me, and for so many others, you opened the door to hell.
“And then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us and led us all through it. You could have ended the rapes, the disturbances, the sickening manipulations that you have organized, seen and even experienced.
“Ghislaine, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in a cell. You deserve to be locked in a cage forever, just like you locked up your victims.”
‘cat’
When British victim ‘Kate’ was a lonely teenager in 1994, Maxwell dressed her as a schoolgirl for sex with Epstein and labeled her a ‘good girl’.
She said: “The many acts committed against me by Epstein, including rape, strangulation and assault, would never have happened without the devious and premeditated role played by Ghislaine Maxwell. What happened to me at that young age drastically changed the course of my life, forever.
“I have witnessed on numerous occasions over many years Ghislaine Maxwell trying to recruit other girls and making consistent and persistent demands on me and others to do the same.
“There was never any ambiguity or doubt about her full knowledge of what would happen if she recruited girls.” In the years following the abuse, she struggled with drug addiction, panic attacks and nightmares, saying she “was unable to trust my own instincts when choosing romantic relationships.”
Kate said witnessing in the trial was “both terrifying and again traumatizing,” but added: “I haven’t regretted it for a moment, though.”