Female 'recruiters, groomers and friends' accused of supplying Epstein with girls

According to court papers, Sarah Kellen and British heiress Ghislaine Maxwell told the girls not to speak to authorities about their interactions with Epstein. Photo / AP

Scanning through leaked flight logs from Jeffrey Epstein's private jet between 2001 and 2006, an unfamiliar name crops up time and again - 350, to be precise.

Only Epstein himself, and longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, appear to have flown more often than Sarah Kellen on the plane dubbed the "Lolita Express".

Kellen, described by Epstein's victims as Maxwell's "lieutenant", is accused by them of procuring women and underage girls for the late financier.

Little has been heard of, or from, the 40-year-old, and three other alleged female "co-conspirators", since they were given immunity from prosecution under a highly unusual "sweetheart deal" struck between Epstein and the US Attorney for South Florida in a 2008 criminal case.

The arrest last week of Maxwell at the behest of the attorney's office in New York, which has said it is not bound by the Florida agreement, has now raised the prospect that investigators may turn next to the quartet.

The Telegraph understands that authorities are looking into the alleged role played by Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, and Nadia Marcinkova in Epstein's sex trafficking ring with a view to bringing charges.

The women have been accused of being his "recruiters, groomers, sexual partners and friends," an organised network of underlings who reportedly received huge salaries and perks in return. They accuse Kellen of running a "rolodex" of women and girls that she would arrange to visit Epstein wherever he was.

"When Jeffrey wanted me, you know, Sarah Kellen or Ghislaine would call me into his bedroom, and I had no choice but to go," said Sarah Ransome, who was a 22-year-old student when she claims she was abused and trafficked by Epstein and his associates.

Ransome alleges the pair would also gave her tips on how to give Epstein erotic massages, including how to rub his feet and best satisfy him sexually.

Jeffrey Epstein. Photo / AP

"Sarah Kellen knew for every girl that she organised to go on that island (Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands) or to be picked up by a car to go to the New York mansion, she knew that these girls were there to be abused repeatedly," she claimed.

According to court papers, Kellen and British heiress Maxwell told the girls not to speak to authorities about their interactions with Epstein. Maxwell has denied all charges against her.

Kellen, who was 22 and had just been cast out of the Jehovah's Witnesses following a divorce when she met Epstein, has claimed to have been manipulated "sexually and psychologically" by the late billionaire for years.

In a previous statement, lawyers for Kellen claimed that she scheduled appointments for Epstein and Maxwell "at their direction". Kellen is "aware of the pain and damage Epstein caused and deeply regrets that she had any part in it," they said.

She did not respond to the Telegraph's request for comment.

Marcinkova, another assistant, says she was herself a "sex slave" who was brought by Epstein to the US from Slovakia when she was 15 before she is alleged to have started helping procure other girls.

The women have faced numerous civil lawsuits, but never criminal ones. Anti-trafficking organisations say determining criminal liability is complicated if a person has been exploited for sex, then used to recruit others.

Marcinkova and Ross have exercised their right to remain silent when questioned on the allegations. Groff denied having anything to do with Epstein's sexual misconduct through a lawyer in 2019.

A pedestrian stops to take a photo of Jeffrey Epstein's townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York. Photo / AP

After 2008, Kellen appeared to drop off the radar, deleting or setting to private social media accounts and using the name Sarah Kensington to set up an interior design company, SLK Designs. In 2010, she was interviewed as part of civil proceedings, along with Epstein's other assistants, but invoked her right under to Fifth Amendment not to answer questions put to her under oath.

She married Brian Vickers, a Nascar driver, three years later and now appears to spend her time between the couple's homes in New York, Miami and North Carolina.

The question now is whether Maxwell, 58, who is facing 35 years in prison if found guilty of charges of recruiting women and underage girls for Esptein to sexually abuse that she denies, will work with prosecutors to build a case against the alleged co-conspirators.

"She will name names. She's a drowning rat," Christina Oxenberg, a distant cousin of Prince Andrew's and former associate of Ms Maxwell's, told The Telegraph. "Enablers like Sarah Kellen should be given up by Maxwell."

Oxenberg, who is writing a memoir entitled Secrets, claims the daughter of British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell confided to her in 1997 that she "brought in other women to help satisfy Epstein's needs".

She said Maxwell told her she had "wire-tapped" the jets for "leverage" and speculated that any resulting audio and video recordings could potentially incriminate co-conspirators and high-profile figures who travelled with Epstein.

Gloria Allred, who is representing a number of Epstein's victims, said she was not sure if Maxwell was seeking to make a deal, or whether the SDNY would accept. "It has to be a two-way street," she told this paper.

Audrey Strauss speaks alongside William F. Sweeney Jr. during a news conference to announce charges against Ghislaine Maxwell for her alleged role in sexual exploitation. Photo / AP

The FBI and prosecutors could also look at what dealings Epstein and Maxwell had with Kellen and the others following his release from prison in 2009.

Transactions made by Epstein were laid bare this week as part of an investigation by New York state financial regulators into oversight at Deutsche Bank.

According to the regulators, Epstein, who died in an apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail cell last year while awaiting trial, sent $2.65 million (£2.1m) in 120 wire transfers through an account set up in 2014.

They found that some of the payments from that account, and others, were made to the four "co-conspirators" named in the 2008 case.

Kellen is also reported to have visited Epstein several times in prison while he was serving an 18-month sentence for sex crimes involving a minor, and was pictured with him in 2012 after his release.

While Ransome welcomed the arrest of Maxwell, she said further charges needed be brought for her to feel that justice had been served: "I have faith that maybe I'll get another day in court where I can face the co-conspirators, the people that helped Jeffrey rape me every day."