Two years after Jeffrey Epstein's suicide behind bars, a jury has been picked in New York City for Ghislaine Maxwell's trial. Video / AP
Another key accuser at the sex-abuse trial of Ghislaine Maxwell testified on Friday that Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein forced themselves on her during a 1996 visit to the financier's sprawling New Mexico ranch when she was just 16.
Annie Farmer told jurors she accepted an invitation to the ranch hoping that Maxwell and Epstein would help her with academic endeavours. Instead, she said, Maxwell ended up massaging her breasts and Epstein climbed into bed without her permission.
Farmer recalled the unwanted physical contact making her feel like she "just wanted the weekend to be over. … I wanted to be done with it."
She added: "All these experiences made me feel like they had a very different interest in me."
Annie Farmer testifies on the witness stand during the Ghislaine Maxwell sex abuse trial in New York. Photo / AP
Asked by a prosecutor at the start of her testimony if she saw anyone in the courtroom who had ever given her a massage, Farmer identified Maxwell, who was sitting at the defense table looking at Farmer.
Farmer, now 42, took the stand using her true identity — a departure from the decision by three other accusers with similar stories who testified under pseudonyms or first names only to protect their privacy.
The three others claimed Maxwell recruited them to give Epstein massages meant as a ruse for sexually abusing teens. Two said they were just 14 when the abuse started and that Maxwell sometimes participated in the encounters.
Maxwell, 59, has denied charges she groomed underage girls for Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019. Her lawyers say the government is making her a scapegoat for alleged sex crimes committed by her onetime boyfriend.
Farmer testified Friday that she met Epstein at age 16 on a 1996 trip to New York City to visit her older sister, who was working for him at his Manhattan mansion. When they visited him at the home, he "seemed very friendly and down to earth" and even offered to mentor her, she said.
She said that during an outing to the movies with Epstein, he reached over to hold her hand and caress her leg.
"I felt sick to my stomach," she said. "It was not something I was expecting at all."
When Farmer returned home, she stayed in touch with the wealthy financier and accepted an invitation to travel to New Mexico with a plane ticket he paid for even though, she said, "after what happened in the movie theatre, I didn't want to be alone with him".
She said she initially felt more comfortable because Maxwell was there. But when they took her to the movies, he "right away began to hold my hand" and rub her foot and arm throughout the film with no effort to hide the behaviour from Maxwell, she said.
Isabel Maxwell, sister of Ghislaine Maxwell is surrounded by reporters and others as she leaves the courthouse in New York. Photo / AP
Once home, Maxwell insisted on giving Farmer a massage and told her to take off her clothes, Farmer testified. Maxwell "pulled down the sheet and exposed my breasts and starting rubbing on my breasts," Farmer said.
"It didn't make sense to me that would happen," she said. "I so badly wanted to get off the table and have the massage be done."
The next morning, she said, Epstein came into her bedroom and told her he wanted to cuddle. After he climbed into bed, she froze, thinking: "I just have to get through this." He pressed his body against her, she said.
She finally made up an excuse to go to the bathroom: "I wanted to be in there long enough that this situation would be over," she said.
Farmer accepted $1.5 million from a fund set up to compensate Epstein victims, she testified.
The encounters occurred in New Mexico, which did not have a specific age of consent statute, although its laws criminalised all sexual contact of a minor under the age of 13 when coercion or force is involved.
On cross examination, a defence lawyer repeatedly emphasised through her questions that Maxwell was not involved in the most egregious behaviour described by Farmer and elicited that Farmer was not sure she was naked during her massage, although she was certain that her breasts were exposed.
Courtroom sketch shows Tracy Chapell, a Federal Express employee, testifying on the witness stand during the Ghislaine Maxwell sex abuse trial. Photo / AP
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly. Although Farmer was not identified by name in court documents, the practising psychologist has been outspoken in describing her experiences in interviews with ABC and The New York Times. When Maxwell sought bail, Farmer asked the judge to deny it, calling her a "psychopath".
Maxwell has been jailed since she was arrested in New Hampshire in July of the following year.
Ghislaine Maxwell conferring with her defence attorney Bobbi Sternheim before the start of her sex abuse trial last week. Photo / AP
Farmer's testimony caps the trial's second week. It's unclear whether the government will finish presenting its case Friday, as expected.
The judge has suggested that closing arguments — at a trial originally projected to last six weeks — might occur as early as December 20 if the defence presentation next week only lasts a day or two.
