Woman: I Am Epstein's 'Minor Victim-1'

Lawsuit from anonymous woman says she was 14 when recruited for sex
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2019 6:37 AM CDT
Woman: I Am Epstein's 'Minor Victim-1'
A 2017 photo of Jeffrey Epstein.   (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

When prosecutors brought new sex-trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein, one of the women they focused on was identified only as "Minor Victim-1." Now she has come forward, though anonymously, in a new lawsuit against Epstein's estate, reports the Wall Street Journal. The woman says she was 14 when an older teenage girl from the neighborhood brought her to meet Epstein at his Manhattan mansion around 2002. He asked her age, then disrobed for a massage that became sexual, she says. Afterward, Epstein "put on a robe and retrieved three hundred-dollar bills from his robe pocket, which he handed to (Jane) Doe," per the New York Times. She went back regularly over the next three years, and the encounters became even more sexual, she alleges.

"All told, Doe was sexually assaulted by Epstein countless times over the course of three years," the lawsuit says, per CNN. The woman says she was an easy target because she was poor and desperate for money. She made even more cash if she recruited other young women, according to the lawsuit, and she stopped going to school to spend most of her time "gratifying him sexually." The woman says two female Epstein assistants (not Ghislaine Maxwell) coordinated her visits, and they potentially face charges as prosecutors continue their investigation into possible co-conspirators. The woman says she stopped visiting Epstein at age 17 and has since struggled with anxiety and depression and been diagnosed with PTSD. (Epstein was seen traveling with girls who looked 11 or 12.)

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