forward and I had to finally put all the allegations
allegations
both of the business staff but and the
farmer's allegations to Jeffrey and
Gilen. They in their different ways went
Epstein was instantly menacing. A man
prepared to bully [music] and intimidate
to save himself.
the entire thing as a game,
a really dark, twisted game. He even
said to me at the beginning, "Okay,
let's play chess. I'll be black, you be
white, you get the first move." And
from there, it descended into a sort of
horrific game of cat and mouse. He would
phone me every day. And then he told me
that if he didn't like
what I was going to write, he was going
to have his witch doctor place a curse
on my unborn children and that that was
off the record. Then he told me he was
going to sue me and ruin me
personally and I was just really
frightened of what this [music] man
could do.
Yeah. So even though the threats he was
making against you were quite
preposterous, you took him seriously.
Like you you you were genuinely frightened.
frightened.
Yeah. Because at the end of all of this,
at the end of months of digging, meeting
the pharmacisters,
[snorts] there was still this question
mark, who is this guy?
But it only got worse when Epstein made
a personal visit to Vickiy's boss at the
time, the editor-inchief of Vanity Fair.
Epstein got the result he demanded.
Maria and Annie Farmer's allegations
were cut from the story that went to
print in late 202.
So, as the journalist who had uncovered
these allegations and convinced these
sisters to go public, what was your
reaction to see that your work was not
in your article? Well, I remember
bursting into
tears and saying to my the direct the
person who was directly my editor, we've
exposed these poor women. I mean, this
is unconscionable.
But was it a a reflection also of an
abuse of power? I mean, if Jeffrey
Epstein walked into the editor-in
chief's office,
he wasn't there to say hello. Of course,
2002 was was an era in which Jeffrey
Epstein and other predators, you know,
Harvey Weinstein were were running the
world and women everywhere weren't
speaking up. The idea that two men would
have a meeting [snorts]
after which these allegations would
would get pulled. I mean, you know, in
the world we live in now, that is it,
you know, it's it's monstrous.
Vickiy's boss, Graden Carter, denies
being influenced or intimidated by
Epstein. But either way, the Vanity Fair
story didn't go anywhere near exposing
the depths of Epstein's depravity.
I only got the very, very, very tip of
[music] that iceberg. I didn't get to
the den of iniquity that we now know was
really going on behind Jeffrey Epstein's
closed walls in the mansion in New York
and on his island and in [music] Palm Beach
around that that mansion. [music] That's
where this part of the sex trafficking
ring really kind of came [music] to life.
Palm Beach, Florida is home to some of
the wealthiest people in America. An
exclusive enclave for the rich and
powerful, including former President
Donald Trump.
Jeffrey Epstein's luxurious home here
graced the foreshore. Its white walls
and inscrable exterior hiding a dark
truth. a place where it's estimated more
than a hundred girls were tricked and
abused. Their lives changed [music] in
an instant.
At 14, I was still in middle school. I
was straight A student. Never even got a
B. I played the first chair trumpet. I
was the captain of the cheerleading
squad. And then after I met Jeffrey, I
just completely quit.
This is where you were living for a while.
while.
Yes. This is where I was living when I
met Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was 48 when [music] a teenage
Courtney Wild entered his orbit in 2001.
At the time, she was living in this
trailer park, one of West Palm Beach's
poorest communities.
Do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein
targeted areas like this? Yeah,
definitely targeted, you know, children
like myself that were vulnerable to him
and his money and um we felt like we
were being helped and saved by him when
ultimately he was just praying on us.
As Courtney told me in 2019, her
experience started when she was brought
to the millionaire by another [music]
14-year-old to make much needed cash.
The trap had been set. What were you
expecting to happen? What Why did you
think you were coming here?
Well, I knew that I was coming here to
give a guy a massage and to make $200. I
did know that. Um,
it was never told to me that I would be
molested by this man or anything like that.
that.
Inside, Courtney very soon discovered
the massage was cover for a terrible,
wellrehearsed crime. We were taken
upstairs. It was like a circular
stairwell that led to a hallway [music]
that led to his bedroom which the
massage table was in his bedroom
bathroom. You know, he asked us to get
comfortable to just, you know, take our
clothes off to be in our bra and
panties. Were you abused during that session?
session?
And so we would massage him for about 30
minutes and then whenever he was ready,
you know, rolled over and asked the
person that brought me to [music] go
downstairs and wait. And once that
happened, then that's when the sexual
abuse happened. Yes.
You you're 14 and in a completely alien
situation, an incomprehensible position.
How did you react? I just remember
afterwards how I felt walking down the
stairs and I just felt so [music] dirty
and so um like just like a piece of me
had been taken dirty. I felt it was like
Virginia Du Frey's experience was eerily
similar, except her recruiter was not a
fellow teen, but the sophisticated and
seemingly trustworthy Galen Maxwell.
Virginia was 16 and working at Donald
Trump's Mara Lago resort when Maxwell
spied her reading a textbook on massage.
She just seemed very nice and she said,
"I've got a person that I know who's
actually looking for a traveling
masseuse and uh if you want, I can get
you an interview with him. If he likes
you, we can get you educated. You'll be
a real masseuse and you'll get to travel
and see the world." And and you know,
like she made it sound like it was a
dream come true and it wasn't.
Within hours, Virginia was at Epstein's
Florida mansion. Lured there by
Maxwell's promise. It ended in [music] a
devastating sexual attack.
So, put it this way. We did the back of
him. We did the back of Epstein. And
then when he turned over, um that's when
I was instructed to um
um to
[sighs and gasps]
when I was instructed to um get
undressed and um
and have sex with Jeffrey Epstein while
You want to take a moment?
No, I'm okay. [snorts]
[snorts] Okay.
Okay.
So, you were abused by both of them in
your very first encounter.
Yeah, with both of them. I was abused by
Gilan and Epstein.
I don't mean to sound sexist in any way,
shape, or form, but I I expected it from
a man, but I didn't expect it from a
woman. And um
yeah, I think that's what hurts the most.
Maxwell's role as Epstein's
co-conspirator, for which [music] she is
now serving a 20-year jail term, is well
known. But in truth, it went well beyond
Maxwell. The pair devised a scheme to
feed Epstein's voracious appetite.
They lured poverty-stricken girls in
with cash, fanning their dreams of a
better life. According to journalist
Luchia Osborne Crowley, by the time the
sexual abuse began, many were too
invested in their promises to get out.
This was a welloiled machine of finding
vulnerable young girls who really needed
someone to look after them. Um, and then
also using those girls to try and entrap
[music] younger and younger girls. And a
lot of that, it seems, was developed in Florida.
Florida.
How many girls do you think you brought
to Jeffrey Epstein? [music]
At the minimum minimum 50, but anywhere
from 50 to 70 girls.
And what were their ages?
The same ages of me. Um 14, 15, 16. I
just hold a lot of guilt and shame for
doing those things. And just to know
that I had any influence on that
happening to somebody else just, you
know, it really it's just devastating
and breaks my heart. [music]
[music]
Epstein's vile pyramid scheme might have
continued unchecked if not for the
stepmother of one of his teenage victims
who called the Palm Beach Police
Department in 2005.
It was an incident that occurred maybe
like three three and a half weeks ago
with one of my stepdaughters. Found out
that um ended up being that they went to
Palm Beach to a gentleman's house and
they start off by giving this gentleman
a massage and he pays them. If he likes
them and he thinks that they're pretty
enough, he keeps them around to do other things.
things.
Okay. So, I was I wasn't quite sure if
there was an investigation or if you
guys had any word.
Well, this is the first I'm hearing of
it. That initial call was so alarming,
the police launched an investigation.
And it didn't [music] take them long to
uncover the revoling scale of Epstein's network.
network.
Did Jeff know anybody's real true age or
he didn't care?
I don't think he cared. He told me the younger.
younger.
He asked me to take my shirt off, so I
took my shirt off.
Okay. So, were you in brown or were you topless?
topless?
I Yeah, I ended up being topless. Yeah.
And he start getting a little excited
about it and he start touching himself
during the massage. Did he ask you to to
remove your pants or Yeah.
Yeah.
Police interviewed a staggering 40
victims whose ages ranged from 13 to 16.
Their accounts were shocking enough,
but what they found in Epstein's home
was a creepy insight into his depraved
life, dozens of nude photos, a steam
room, and a massage room with sex toys.
Among the damning evidence were phone
message pads clearly showing a trade in
young girls scheduling them for massage
appointments and flight logs listing
girls being transported aboard Jeffrey's
private plane dubbed the Lolita Express.
I think it's really important to know
that is it is actually much much worse
than we think.
In 2006, much to the relief of police,
this predator was finally caught. A
wealth of evidence amassed against him.
But his own vast wealth and his [music]
immense influence saw him escape charges
that should have landed him in jail for
life. Instead, [music] he served a mere
13 months when prosecutors accepted his
guilty plea to the minor charge of
soliciting a child for prostitution.
But while he was technically an inmate
at the Palm Beach County stockade, he
really just slept there.
It was essentially a slap on the wrist.
He got 12-hour work released from prison
every single day. Other journalists have
described it as he just basically had to
sleep in a crappy motel for, you know, a
bit over a year.
For many, the most outrageous part of
Epstein's plea bargain was a seedy deal
he struck with the attorney general for
the Southern District of Florida.
It gave Epstein and any alleged
co-conspirators known or unknown
immunity from further prosecution
supposedly forever.
Worse still, none of his victims were
told about the deal. How do you feel
about that? to be sexually abused by a
man and have the government know and
then actually, you know, co-conspire
with the perpetrator to make sure
nothing happens with to him is just so
it just sounds unreal.
Why do you think the government did that?
that?
My personal opinion about that is, you
know, [sighs and gasps]
money, power,
and I think that there was a lot of
people involved in this, this underage
minor sex ring that they were running,
and I think everybody wanted it to go away.
away.
So, you believe that there was a
conspiracy at play here?
Oh, absolutely.
It really is a sorted story. Everything
that happened in Florida and the fact
that he authorities did know, did arrest
him, did charge [music] him, and he
still was able to continue.
And according to Virginia Dufrey, the
abuse didn't stop with Jeffrey Epstein
and Glenn Maxwell. She was [music] not
just their sexual play thing. She was
now part of their international sex
trafficking ring, lent out to whomever
they liked. I was traffic [music] to
other billionaires. I was traffic to um
politicians, uh professors,
even royalty. It was it was the [music]
elite of the world. It was the people
who run the world. It was the most
Gilen was this sort of very exotic,
glamorous figure who would drop in and
to be honest name drop a lot of famous
names that she'd been hanging out with.
We heard about Bill Clinton and sort of
all sorts of other people. And we also
knew that she was very good friends with
Prince Andrew and that Jeffrey Epstein
would sometimes have Prince Andrew to stay.
stay.
As a British expat in New York,
journalist Vicky Ward moved in similar
circles to socialite Gen Maxwell, the
daughter of disgraced mega rich media
tycoon Robert Maxwell.
Following her father's suspicious death
[music] aboard his boat in 1991, Galen
moved to New York where she started her
relationship with the millionaire
Jeffrey Epstein.
In 2002, Vicki was assigned to write a
profile of the mysterious financia for
Vanity Fair magazine.
When I began reporting this piece, I
actually ran into
Gilen Maxwell. And I sort of said
breezily, "Oh, Gen, yes, I'm writing
this story about Jeffrey and the money."
And I was really taken aback when she
started to cry.
like, why is this woman crying? This
doesn't seem to make
any sense. Well, I didn't obviously I I
didn't know that I was from her
perspective probably in danger of
pulling back the curtain on what was an
absolutely horrific criminal sexual
enterprise involving both of them. [music]
[music]
Epstein and Maxwell complimented each
other perfectly. He had the money she
was used to. She had the contacts he
wanted. The most high-profile, of
course, being Prince Andrew, who is
famously accused of abusing the then
17-year-old Virginia Du Frry at Epstein
and Maxwell's invitation.
We went to Club and he danced with
me and and he sweats a lot and he smells
funny. Um,
and then and then we get in the car and
um, Gilen tells me in the car that I
have to do
what I do for Jeffrey for Prince Andrew.
And that's when I learned what was going
to happen.
There's a slight problem with with with
with the sweating um because
it was a claim and counter claim that
turned this royal's life upside down.
His ill-advised decision to appear on
the BBC in 2019 left him, if not
sweating, then red-faced. His attempt to
convince us he knew nothing of the
teenage Virginia fell flat when this
photo taken in 2001 in Maxwell's London
apartment resurfaced.
She provided a photo of the two of you together.
together. Yes.
Yes.
How do you explain that? I can't
because I don't I have no again I have
absolutely no memory of that photograph
ever being taken.
Your friend suggested that the photo is fake.
fake.
I think it's from the investigations
that we've done, you can't prove whether
or not that photograph is uh faked or
not because it is a photograph of a
photograph of a photograph. So, it's
very difficult to be able to to um to to
prove it, but
I don't remember that photograph ever
being taken.
So, as you know, Prince Andrew denies
the allegations against him. And he says
that this photo is a fake, that he was
never there, and that he's not his arm
and they're not his fingers.
Those are his fingers. That is Andrew.
This photo has been verified as an
original and it's been since given to
the FBI and they've never contested that
it's a fake. And I know it's real and he
needs to stop with all these lame
excuses. We're sick of hearing it.
This is a real photo.
And that was the first time you met him.
And that's the very first time I met
him. And that's right before I was
abused by him.
How many times were you trafficked to him?
him?
Three times.
Her allegations against Prince Andrew
are laid bare in the newly unsealed
court documents. The disgraced royal is
mentioned 69 times and [music] not just
by Virginia. Johanna Shoberg, who was 21
at the time, [music] claims to have had
her own traumatic experience with Prince
Andrew, and she says [music] she saw the
prince and Virginia together at the
Epstein mansion in New York.
According to British-based Australian
author Luchia [music] Osborne Crowley,
her account given under oath is damning
of the prince.
We also have an allegation from a
separate victim, Johanna, who has said
that she was groped [music] by Prince
Andrew. So that's incredibly significant
because we have sworn testimony from a
second person corroborating that he did
engage in illegal acts relating to to minors.
minors.
Do you expect Prince Andrew to be under
further legal scrutiny? I think that
certainly Prince Andrew will be facing
many many many more questions given what
we've learned in these new uh documents
and it's really important I think for
the authorities to look at the fact that
there is a second person who's alleging
that he broke the law and whether they
need to speak to those victims and other
potential victims to see if there is
anything that they can or should be
charging him with.
I wonder if you have any sense now of
guilt, regret or shame about any of your
behavior and your friendship with Epstein.
Epstein.
As far as uh my um association with him
was concerned, it had um uh some
seriously beneficial
um outcomes in areas that have nothing
or have nothing to do with with with
what I would describe as what we're
talking about today.
Prince Andrew has since found [music]
regret, but continues to deny all the
allegations leveled at him. He settled
with Virginia Du Fray on the eve of
their civil trial in 2022,
reportedly for more than $15 million.
In settling with her, the prince likely
thought the saga was over, but the
release of these latest documents once
again raises questions for him and many
other Epstein associates.
Those are very, very wealthy, powerful
people and so far they've escaped
without many questions being asked of them.
Billionaire financier [music] Jeffrey
Epstein has been arrested,
charged with sex trafficking involving
underage girls.
He could face up to 45 years behind bars.
bars.
It was a prized catch. In 2019, the roar
around Jeffrey Epstein's [music] sex
trafficking ring was so loud, police
were forced to act. Neatly befitting the
lifestyle of a jet setting millionaire,
Epstein [music] was nabbed on his
private plane as he landed back in the
US from Paris. For his most outspoken
victim, Virginia Duy, his arrest [music]
was a gift more than 20 years in the making.
making.
I never thought it was going to happen.
I honestly thought he was just going to
continue to get away with it over and
over and over again just like he proved
so many times. Um,
so yeah, it was it was like Christmas in July
July
big time.
But the expectation that Epstein would
[music] finally face his crimes was
dashed when he was found dead by suicide
in his jail cell a month later.
Disgrace finance here Jeffrey Epstein
has taken his own life. The bombshell
development raising many new questions.
With Epstein dead, the charges against
him were dismissed, denying justice to
his many victims. And his
co-conspirator, British socialite Gen
Maxwell, became the most wanted woman in
the world as she went on the run.
So the idea that this woman could be
involved in something as depraved and
As journalist Vicky Ward and the rest of
the world watched on in fascination,
Galen was tracked down to a luxurious
New Hampshire hideway after eluding
police for a year. Today we announced
the arrest of one of the villains in
this investigation.
This day to me has been like one of the
best days of my life. I have not stopped
smiling and crying, happy tears, and I'm
just Yeah, I I'm elated to know that
she's where she belongs. [music]
Immediately upon Maxwell's arrest,
Virginia spoke for all the victims of
the [music] sex trafficking ring.
She ruined so many lives. She belongs in
jail. You want to hurt kids, that's
where you [music] go.
In 2022, Maxwell was convicted on five
sex trafficking counts. The then
60-year-old sentenced to 20 years in jail.
jail.
She has lodged an appeal which will be
reviewed in March and continues to claim
her innocence from jail as she told her
brother Kevin Maxwell.
Everyone was always asking who is the
real G? Who's the real Gilen? It's
definitely not the person portraying it.
I feel completely divorced from the
person that
people reference and talk about.
And is that the biggest misconception of you?
you?
That I'm the crulest, meanest,
horriblest person who's done committed crimes.
crimes. Yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean I I I literally haven't seen
Luchia [music] Osborne Crowley was one
of the few journalists granted access to
the court to report on Maxwell's trial.
It was surprising that even at her own
federal sex trafficking trial, she
didn't appear to have a lot of humility
and still was incredibly confident. And
I certainly got the sense that she did
not expect to be convicted.
And certainly no remorse.
Certainly no remorse. She basically said
that she was sorry for the damage that
Jeffrey Epstein had caused them. And
that's all she said. [music] With
Maxwell behind bars and Epstein dead,
this case appeared to be resolved. But
the recent [music] release of these
court documents shows how little we
still know.
There are so many names that we are left
with question marks about. What was his
appeal? Why did some of the most
powerful men in the world [music]
[snorts] flock to him? What was Bill
Gates doing around [music] Jeffrey
Epste? I'd love to hear from Bill
Clinton what he saw in Jeffrey Epstein.
That would be great to know.
In all, more than 150 [music] names have
been linked to the disgraced
millionaire. But apart from some denials
of any wrongdoing, the silence from
those identified has been deafening.
We've got evidence of sworn testimony
where people are naming very, very
powerful people who would have been in a
position potentially to do something
about what was going on here. uh and
instead we had a sex trafficking ring
that went on for at least two decades,
possibly three with almost complete
impunity. And so that's the point that I
think we really all need to hold on to
about scale here is that not the
splashiness of these names, but just how
many there are, just how many people
there are that victims pointed to to
say, "This person can corroborate my
story. This person can be a witness.
This person met me on the island. This
person saw me." And those are very, very
wealthy, powerful people. And so far,
they've uh escaped without many
questions being asked of them.
We'd have to assume that they're just
running from this as far and as fast as
they can. [snorts]
Yes. Well, it I mean, I've I've been
quite surprised at the silence over the
last couple of weeks, if I'm completely
honest. I I would have thought that at
least some of these people would have
felt an obligation to to do some
explaining. At the very least,
association with Jeffrey Epstein raises
questions of judgment, right? Nobody
looks good for having hung out with
Jeffrey Epstein now knowing everything
that we know. Whether or not they should
be held accountable as to whether or not
there was any criminal activity. And
obviously, we just don't know. We I do
one has to hope that because
we now know so much more that there is
so much public scrutiny
on this that the wheels of justice will
turn in a way that they definitely
didn't for a very long time.
The legacy of Jeffrey [music] Epstein
and Glenn Maxwell is to expose a
darkness too awful to imagine. But as
difficult as it is to comprehend, it
would seem there's even more to be revealed.
revealed.
Certainly from what I know that there
are more people who aren't even on this
list that either knew or potentially
participated in what was going on around
Jeffrey Epstein.
Do you expect that others will be
charged that others will face prosecution?
prosecution?
I very much
hope so. I think it's really important
to know it is actually much much worse
than we think and and that we're
Hello, I'm Tara Brown. Thanks for
watching 60 Minutes Australia. Subscribe
to our channel now for brand new stories
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