Sarah Kellen and Ghislaine Maxwell attend Madonna Childrens Book 'Lotsa de Casha', in 2005. Photo / AP
Sarah Kellen and Ghislaine Maxwell attend Madonna Childrens Book 'Lotsa de Casha', in 2005. Photo / AP
At Ghislaine Maxwell's sentencing this week, one question loomed large over the courtroom.
If the British socialite helped Jeffrey Epstein run a vast and far-reaching pyramid scheme of sexual abuse, as the New York judge was contending, where were the financier's other alleged enablers?
The name of one assistant tothe couple came up time and time again during Maxwell's four-week federal trial. It was on the lips of victims who took the stand, and in black-and-white handwritten flight logs for Epstein's private jet.
Yet when the heiress was on Tuesday sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking, Sarah Kellen was nowhere to be found.
Kellen, 43, has been described variously in legal filings as Epstein's "lieutenant" and "right-hand woman" for allegedly sourcing and booking women and underage girls for "massages", where the financier would rape his victims.
Victims of the couple this week questioned why Kellen, the glamorous New York-based wife of Nascar driver Brian Vickers, and the other "assistants" who facilitated their abuse never faced charges.
In summation, Southern District of New York Judge Alison Nathan ruled that Maxwell, 60, had led a "criminally responsible participant", naming another Ms Kellen.
Starting in 2002, she worked in Epstein's office building on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Larry Visoski, one of Epstein's private pilots, testified at trial that she worked as a personal assistant for both Epstein and Maxwell.
She scheduled flights on Epstein's jets, and according to flight logs, flew 350 times between 2001 and 2006.
In discussing the scope of Maxwell's role in Epstein's sex-trafficking scheme, Judge Nathan identified Kellen as "a knowing participant in the criminal conspiracy" and said she was "a criminally responsible participant."
Ghislaine Maxwell in New York City, 2016. Photo / Getty Images
"The defendant was Epstein's number two and the lady of the house," the judge said, referring to Maxwell. "At some point, Kellen took over some of the defendant's duties. But even after that time, the defendant retained her leadership position, as evidenced by Carolyn's testimony."
Carolyn, a witness at the trial who requested only to use her first name, testified that on at least one occasion Ms Kellen took nude photos of her before a sexualised massage appointment with Epstein that she was paid hundreds of dollars for.
Kellen was one of four women granted immunity from Florida prosecution over Epstein's abuse through a highly unusual so-called sweetheart deal with the government in 2018. The others included Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, and Nadia Marcinkova.
Judge Nathan in the SDNY - the district that brought the indictment against Maxwell - however, proclaimed other states were not bound by those in Florida.
In 2019, The New York Times reported that prosecutors were considering charges against her. It is not clear what happened.
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.
Sarah Ransome, a British victim of Epstein and Maxwell, told The Telegraph after the sentencing that it was not just Maxwell who should be on trial.
"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 raped repeatedly," she claimed.
"I can't believe the judge named her. Something surely has to happen now," Ms Ransome said. "A lot of people need to be held accountable."
Spencer Kuvin, who represents nearly a dozen other victims, told The Telegraph that they were "happy that there is finally some justice" but the women wanted the US Attorneys' office to "continue with their investigation and prosecution of other co-conspirators that were involved with Epstein."
Asked why he believed US authorities had never sought to charge Ms Kellen, Mr Kuvin said "unfortunately the federal government does not discuss its ongoing investigations, so we have no idea what they are proceeding with."
The women have faced numerous civil lawsuits, but never criminal ones.
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. According to public records, SLK Designs operated for a while from a building in Manhattan owned by Epstein's property-manager brother, Mark Epstein, up until the time of Epstein's arrest in July 2019.
In 2010, she was interviewed as part of civil proceedings, along with Epstein's other assistants, but declined to answer questions.
She married Vickers three years later and now appears to spend her time between the couple's homes in Manhattan, Miami and North Carolina.
