L to R: President Donald Trump with his future wife Melania, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000. Photo / Getty Images
The victims of now deceased paedophile and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein could have a second chance at finding justice, as his mysterious ex-lover is located at a fast food restaurant.
Numerous victims were outraged when news broke that Epstein, accused of trafficking underage women for sex, had reportedly taken his own life in his jail cell last Saturday morning, reports News.com.au.
But pictures showing Epstein's longtime confidant and sometimes girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, could hold the key to pursuing Epstein's alleged co-conspirators who victims claim were complicit in his sexual abuse of minors.
Mystery has surrounded Maxwell this week.
The British socialite, born in France, the wealthy heir to a publishing fortune, and one of nine children, was reportedly discovered holed up in a multimillion-dollar mansion in Massachusetts, after going into hiding when Epstein was charged by the FBI in June, according to reports published by the Daily Mail.
But explosive pictures revealed on Thursday by the New York Post showed Maxwell, who hadn't been seen since 2016, sitting outside at an In-N-Out Burger, dining on fast food in Los Angeles.
Maxwell had been sitting alone with her dog, and said, "Well, I guess this is the last time I'll be eating here," after her photo was taken. She'd been reading a book about the real lives of CIA agents, titled The Book of Honour: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives.
Court documents unsealed on the day of Epstein's death paint a dark picture of the former socialite and heir, with victim accounts describing a woman who trawled college campuses seeking underage girls to bring into Epstein's orbit on the pretence of work.
According to the documents, the girls were quickly trained to be molested by herself and Epstein, according to the court documents.
One victim recounts her referring to another girl in the house as her and Epstein's "slave", while another recounts a girl, 15, begging a billionaire couple for help after saying Maxwell had robbed her of her passport and kept her hostage on Epstein's private island.
FBI documents describe numerous victim accounts of Maxwell, as a sort of pimp of for Epstein, with "chilling" similarity, according to the documents. They accuse her of sickening acts, like threesomes with Epstein and underage girls.
Ms Maxwell's role was to teach the girls to sexually pleasure an insatiable Epstein so "she didn't have to", according to one victim.
Epstein, a mysterious billionaire financier, with powerful friends in politics and royalty, had been accused of a criminal conspiracy by the FBI, and was supposed to be on suicide watch, due to an earlier incident where he had reportedly made attempts on his own life.
Since his death on August 10, accusations have been made against his jailers, who are accused of falsifying logs in their work diaries to make it appear they had checked on the high-profile inmate every 30 minutes.
According to reports, surveillance footage indicates some checks were never made, and guards had been sleeping on the job.
An investigation into his death revealed Epstein had multiple broken bones in his neck, with the injuries being described as "more common in victims of homicide by strangulation" than they are with suicide injuries.
Two sources "familiar with the findings" have told the Washington Post the autopsy found Epstein suffered multiple breaks in his neck bones.
Despite the conjecture the Chief New York medical examiner ruled on Friday that Epstein had taken his own life in prison.
Epstein owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, dubbed "Paedo Island" by locals, as well as the "Zorro" ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, an apartment in Paris and one of the largest pieces of real estate in Manhattan, a sprawling apartment on the Upper East Side. Documents alleged abuse occurred at numerous locations across the world and Maxwell is frequently mentioned.
Hundreds of pages of documents reveal disturbing allegations of sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by Epstein and his co-conspirators, and Maxwell is mentioned by numerous witnesses and accusers.
Formerly suppressed court documents reveal that at least two women who accused Epstein of sexual abuse also pressed charges against Maxwell in 2015.
The documents, unsealed on August 9, the day before Epstein's death, say that Maxwell lived with "convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein for many years".
"While there, she actively took part in recruiting underage girls and young women for sex with Epstein, as well as scheduling the girls to come over, and maintaining a list of the girls and their phone numbers.
The documents state one Epstein victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, launched a legal challenge against Maxwell, alleging she led a campaign to defame her.
As part of the case, Ms Giuffre's legal team cites testimony from Epstein's former house manager, Rinaldo Rizzo.
Mr Rizzo testified in a deposition, as he wept, that he'd seen Epstein "bring a 15-year-old Swedish girl" to a thanksgiving dinner at the home of billionaire couple Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin.
The teen girl told Mr Rizzo that Maxwell took her passport, threatening her when she refused to have sex with Epstein.
"I was on an island, I was on the island and there was Ghislaine, there was Sarah (Kellen, a former assistant to Epstein)," the documents allege the teen girl had said.
"They asked me for sex, I said no … I was on the island, I don't know how I got from the island to here.
"Last afternoon or in the afternoon I was on the island, and now I'm here."
The documents later allege that Ms Giuffre was "indisputably a minor" when she was recruited by Maxwell to have sex with Epstein.
Another victim was allegedly hired by Ms Maxwell under the guise of being a receptionist and answering phones — a "pretext that only lasted a day".
She was approached when she was on campus at university. When she was taken back to Epstein's home, she was introduced to another woman, who was referred to by Maxwell as a "slave".
The victim was told to "massage Epstein, and made it clear that (her) purpose was to bring Epstein to orgasm during these massages".
Epstein explained to the girl that he needed "massages" because "he needed to have three orgasms a day".
"It was biological, like eating," she said.
Maxwell has previously denied wrongdoing, calling the multiple accusations "abhorrent and entirely untrue".
Meanwhile, the fight over Epstein's estate began taking shape, with a woman filing a legal case on Wednesday claiming he raped her when she was a teenager in 2002.
Jennifer Araoz is suing Maxwell — along with three unnamed members of his staff — the first of many legal actions expected to be filed by Epstein's accusers as a new state law came into effect on Wednesday that opens up a one-year window for victims of long-ago sex crimes against children to take legal action.
"Today is my first step toward reclaiming my power Jeffrey Epstein and his enablers stole from me," Araoz said.
US Attorney-General William Barr confirmed that the death of Epstein doesn't relinquish his alleged accomplices from scrutiny.
"This case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein. Any co-conspirators should not rest easy," he said.
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