Accuser: Maxwell trial 'a huge day for survivors'

(30 Nov 2021) Testimony began in federal court in New York on Monday in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said at the start of Maxwell's sex trafficking trial that the British socialite and Jeffrey Epstein enticed girls as young as 14 to engage in “so-called massages” in which sex abuse came to be seen as “casual and normal” after vulnerable victims were showered with money and gifts. Maxwell - who once dated the financier - is accused of acting as Epstein's chief enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for him to abuse. The charges against her stem from the allegations of four women who say she and Epstein victimized them as teens from 1994 to 2004. One of Epstein's accusers, Jennifer Araoz, made a brief statement outside of the courthouse after the first day of proceedings. Jennifer Araoz said it was "a huge day for survivors everywhere. Especially survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, who like myself were denied their day in court". She was referring to Epstein's August 2019 suicide in a Manhattan federal jail as he awaited his own sex trafficking trial. Defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim said Maxwell was a "scapegoat for a man who behaved badly,” just like so many women all the way back to Adam and Eve. “She’s not Jeffrey Epstein. She’s not like Jeffrey Epstein” or any of the powerful men, moguls and media giants who abuse women, Sternheim said. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...