(NEW YORK) — As the criminal trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of serial sex offense Jeffrey Epstein, entered its second week, a woman identified by the pseudonym “Kate” testified that Maxwell recruited and groomed her for sexual activity with Epstein when she was a young woman, under the pretense that they were “friends.”

“Kate” said she was approximately 17 years old and living in London when she met Maxwell during a trip to Paris. “Kate” gave Maxwell her phone number, she said, and Maxwell called her a few weeks later to invite her over for tea. “Kate” was excited, she said, to have made such a “sophisticated and elegant” connection.

“She seemed to be everything I wanted to be,” she said. “She seemed as excited as I was to have a new friend.”

Within a few weeks, “Kate” said,” she was engaging in sexually explicit massages with Epstein at Maxwell’s London townhouse, which was in the same neighborhood where “Kate” then lived with her mother.

Prior to her testimony, Judge Alison Nathan read to the jury a “limiting instruction” informing them that “Kate” was over the legal age of consent at all relevant times and locations, and therefore the jury cannot convict Maxwell of any charges in the indictment based on her testimony. The government is thus only permitted to describe her as a “witness” but not a “victim.”

Prosecutors argued that “Kate’s” testimony was relevant to show Maxwell’s modus operandi and that Maxwell knew that massages with Epstein would be sexualized.

During her first trip to Maxwell’s home in London, “Kate” said she noticed lots of photographs of Maxwell with an older man with peppered hair. The man in the pictures, she learned later, was Epstein, and Maxwell introduced “Kate” to him as “the girl I told you about” on her next visit.

Maxwell, “Kate” said, encouraged her to massage Epstein’s feet and shoulders. Epstein was “very approving,” she said, but then he took a phone call, “Kate” said, and Maxwell ushered her out. A few weeks later, “Kate” said, Maxwell called again, claiming a massage therapist had cancelled at the last minute, and she asked if “Kate” could “do her a favor” by coming over to massage Epstein again.

This time, “Kate” said Maxwell led her upstairs to a small, dimly-lit room with a massage table. Epstein was wearing a robe, but he took it off after Kate entered. Maxwell, she said, closed the door. Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz if Epstein initiated sexual conduct with her during the massage, Kate answered, “Yes.”

On her way out, “Kate” said Maxwell asked, “How did it go? Did you have fun? Was it good? She seemed very excited and happy and thanked me again.”

Two days later, “Kate” said, she returned to give Epstein another massage, and Maxwell lead her to the same room where further sexual contact with Epstein occurred. Afterwards, “Kate” said, Maxwell told her, “You’re such a good girl. … He really likes you.”

“Kate” traveled with Epstein and Maxwell occasionally over the next several years, she said, visiting them in Florida, New York and the Virgin Islands. Kate said she understood Maxwell’s role to be “to take care of Jeffrey’s needs” and noted that she seemed very involved in managing the properties and staff.

Maxwell’s attorney have sought through the case to distance her from Epstein, suggesting in their opening statements that Epstein hid his prurient activities from others, including Maxwell.

“Jeffrey Epstein manipulated the world around him and the people around him,” Maxwell attorney Bobbi Sternheim said last week. “He compartmentalized his life, showing only what he wanted to show to the people around him, including Ghislaine.”

During one visit to Epstein’s Palm Beach estate, “Kate” said she arrived at her guest room to find a “schoolgirl outfit” laid out on her bed. When she asked Maxwell why it was there, “Kate” said Maxwell told her she “thought it would be fun for you to take Jeffrey his tea in this outfit.”

Asked why she continued to spend time Epstein and Maxwell despite what she alleges was happening, “Kate” said she “wanted to maintain a relationship with Ghislaine.”

“I thought,” “Kate said, “she was going to be my friend.”

During cross examination by Sternheim, “Kate” acknowledged she was in contact with Epstein through 2012 — including emails before, during and after he was incarcerated in Palm Beach. And in one email correspondence in 2011, “Kate” was the one who initiated contact with Epstein to say she wanted to visit him in New York.

“Kate” said was not in contact with Maxwell during that same period.

During her testimony, “Kate” acknowledged that she had abused alcohol, cocaine and sleeping pills in her teens and young adulthood but she denied that substance abuse could have impacted her memories of Epstein and Maxwell.

“The memories I have of significant events in my life have never changed,” she said.

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(NEW YORK) — In a report shared with the family of Emmett Till, the Justice Department said that it had concluded that the investigation into the 14-year-old’s murder and decided the case should be closed without a new federal prosecution.

While the department and the FBI called Till’s murder “one of the most horrific examples of the violence routinely inflicted upon Black residents,” in a letter to Till’s family, they said that the new investigation did not uncover new facts that differed from those found in the previous investigation.

Officials from the Department of Justice and the FBI, including Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke, met privately with Till’s family to share the findings of the report.

“Today is a day that we’ll never forget,” Rev. Wheeler Parker, Till’s cousin who was in the house the night Till was kidnapped, said at a press conference Monday.

“Officially, the Emmett Till case has been closed after 66 years,” Parker said. “For 66 years we have suffered pain for his loss, and I suffered tremendously because of the way that they painted him.”

Till, 14, was killed in 1955 while visiting family in Mississippi after he was accused of whistling at and making sexual advances toward a white woman, Carolyn Bryant. He was kidnapped, badly beaten and found in the Tallahatchie River several days later.

Carolyn Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam were charged with Till’s murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. The two men later confessed to the killing in a paid magazine interview months later.

Till’s cousin Parker — who was 16 at the time — was in the house when Roy Bryant and Milam came looking for Till.

“I’m waiting to be shot, and I close my eyes,” Parker recalled in an interview with ABC News for an upcoming documentary series “Let the World See.” “I wasn’t shot, I opened my eyes and they’re passing by me. The guy said we’re looking for fat boy, the fat boy from Chicago.”

“They left with him, and that’s the last time we saw him alive,” he added.

Till’s murder came at a time of intense racial unrest and animosity. When his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, demanded an open casket at his funeral, it helped spark the civil rights movement.

The Justice Department opened an investigation into Till’s killing in 2004 but determined that there was no federal jurisdiction due to the statute of limitations. The investigation was originally closed in 2007 after a local grand jury declined to indict anyone on state charges.

It was reopened in 2018, following the publication of Timothy Tyson’s book “The Blood of Emmett Till,” in which Carolyn Bryant revealed she had not been telling the truth when she testified that Till had grabbed her and uttered obscenities. The Bryant family now deny that she had recanted her allegations.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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