Original subtitles

♪♪

[ Light zapping ]

-I'm sure you've had a lot of people that

won't talk to you.

I'm willing to talk, but I can't change the past.

This is humanity. This is life.

This is the way people looked the other way.

I worked for the New York City Police Department for 10 years,

and you would think that I would have been

more savvy as a retired cop.

Shouldn't I have known better?

Shouldn't I have caught onto something there?

So, I don't have an answer.

They would send a boat that would take me out

to his island to do massage.

And it was a nice gig.

You know, it's quite a place.

It's just dreamy.

It's to die for.

Just a beautiful, beautiful place.

Jeffrey was a nice fella.

You know, there was no reason to be suspicious in any way.

There was a woman there that was running around,

taking care of all sorts of details.

Only to find out later that that was Ghislaine.

Anyhow, after one of his massages, he says,

"Could you come in?"

And I went in there, and there was a young lady there.

He asked me to show her how to do massage.

So I massaged Jeffrey with her and showed her a stroke or two

and had her follow up doing the same strokes as me.

Based on everything I've read since that time, you know,

she could have easily been under 16.

And that young lady may have suffered for many years

under the control of Ghislaine and Jeffrey.

And for that young lady, I would like to say,

you know, I'm so sorry I didn't do anything about it.

I didn't know or I chose not to know.

[ Siren wails ]

-This is the trial of the century.

This is the trial of the century!

♪♪

-This is one of the most eagerly anticipated criminal trials

in recent history.

-It's the opening day of case number 20 Cr. 330,

the United States of America vs. Ghislaine Maxwell.

-Ghislaine Maxwell...

-[ Speaks German ] ...Jeffrey Epstein.

-[ Speaking native language ]

-Maxwell stands accused of recruiting

and trafficking young girls to be sexually abused

by her now-dead partner, Jeffrey Epstein.

-It is a vast departure from the luxury

in which Ghislaine Maxwell has spent most of her life.

-On one side, the defence team,

reportedly costing Maxwell more than $7 million.

On the other, two lawyers who have spent

seven years preparing their case against her.

-This is a trial about a sex-trafficking enterprise

that destroyed the lives of countless young women and girls.

And I think people are fascinated

as to how they got away with it so long.

-A conviction is very important,

because the one key thing you don't want to do

is allow an abuser back out on the streets.

To allow her access to the public again

would just be catastrophic, in my view.

-Attending court, Ghislaine Maxwell's family,

including her brothers, Kevin and Ian.

-Ghislaine Maxwell is the daughter

of the disgraced billionaire media tycoon, Robert Maxwell.

-The trial is just the latest in a long line of scandals

to hit the Maxwell family, which began with her father.

-My philosophy of life can be stated very simply.

Happiness could only be had in hard work...

in service to your fellow man and to your country.

Bang-bang.

-The question remains, how did he fall off the boat?

-The Serious Fraud Office

has begun an investigation of Mirror Group Newspapers.

-Robert Maxwell's sons, Kevin and Ian,

have denied conspiring to defraud

their company's pension scheme.

-What do you feel right now, when you're carrying this name?

-I'm proud of it.

I love my name.

I was born with it and I'm proud of it

and I shall remain proud of it forever.

It's a great name.

-What do you know, Ghislaine Maxwell?

What do you know?

We want names. We want answers.

You must be held accountable.

We, the people, deserve to know!

[ Indistinct conversations, laughter ]

-My job is, I go to parties.

I meet people and I see what people are doing

and I see what people don't want me to see.

Because there's always something going on.

I started my career when I was discovered by Andy Warhol

at the tender age of -- Oh, my God, Andy, don't hate me!

But I was probably 16 or 17.

And, you know, I started going to the Warhol clique.

He gave me my first job,

and I started interviewing celebrities

for Interviewmagazine.

And I've met everybody.

I would go out night after night, looking for stories.

So I've done a lot of snooping.

And I found that if you just listened,

if you just, kind of, like, were quiet

and people knew you were a storyteller, they found you.

And they just loved to talk!

Back in the '90s, I was working for AvenueMagazine

and Hamptonsmagazine as their society columnist.

So that's when I first actually met, you know,

both Jeffrey and Ghislaine at parties.

Ghislaine Maxwell -- when she was in a room,

you knew she was there,

and she wanted you to know she was there.

So she performed.

She was on, she was effervescent,

and I felt that she knew she was being watched,

she wanted to be watched,

but I thought Jeffrey Epstein was another case.

He was a little bit shy.

He didn't really stand out.

And, so, Ghislaine fulfilled the idea

of being his social director.

It was almost like she was his social secretary.

Her little black book, you know, was everything to her.

And she dealt in the commerce of introductions.

She really was a connector.

She had this invisible butterfly net,

and she would go out in the social scene

in London and New York

and she would whisk her net and capture the beautiful people.

The rich, the famous, the powerful people.

And she had this posh accent.

She was well-educated. She was witty. She was fun!

I mean, everybody talks about how much fun she is,

and she deliberately set out

to make friends with important people.

And she used her royal Rolodex to do that.

Her big card was Prince Andrew.

That was her main calling card.

Everywhere she went, it's Prince Andrew this,

Prince Andrew that.

You know, they say in America

that if you put out a lamb chop, everyone will come.

Well, if you put out Prince Andrew,

it's a rare bird in New York City.

You know, you can see all kinds of wildlife here,

but, you know, royalty is somewhat unusual.

So they all came.

There's no question that Prince Andrew

elevated Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

You know, it just gave her this veneer.

"Oh, she's in the royal court.

She's a friend of the Prince."

"She's --" You know, "She has the blessing of the queen."

It coated her, you know, with a veneer of respectability.

But I don't believe the society people I know,

whose names I can't even speak, 'cause they'd kill me, knew.

We just didn't know.

People weren't paying attention.

[ Bell tolling ]

♪♪

-We demand justice!

We demand that justice is served,

and it can start with Ghislaine Maxwell!

-The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is under way.

The prosecution call four women

who claim Ghislaine groomed them for abuse by Epstein

when they were all under 18.

-We, the people, demand justice!

-As well as her family, the public gallery is filled

with journalists and former friends.

-So, what do you think will your feelings be like

when you see her today?

'cause, I mean, you were friends back then.

-Yeah, we used to be friends -- now a long time ago.

It does feel very strange that this vivacious creature

I met in New York in 1989 is now with all of this,

you know, hue and cry and drama and global media attention.

-When I think back to the girl I met in 1990,

and if you told me this was where her story would end up,

I wouldn't believe you.

Why would someone do this?

You know, why would she hurt other women?

But then, I think you need to go back

to the very beginning of this story.

Robert Maxwell, her father, was someone

who really understood the weaknesses of people

and played on them and used them.

Life, to him, was war.

And I think, from the moment Robert Maxwell died,

her life became war.

Something twisted in her.

She'd lost her father.

She'd ostensibly lost all her money.

The shame on the family was huge,

and I think she really felt that.

I think she left England because she felt that shame.

And she was trying to rebuild her life in America.

It's almost as if she shed her old skin and put on a new one.

It was all about being seen in the right place,

with the right house, with the right amount of staff,

flying on private planes, going to private islands.

She had to be seen as powerful.

She had to be seen as someone at the top of the tree.

She had to win.

-I remember, vividly, it was early one morning.

A young woman, with her stepmother, came into my office

and told me what was ultimately an incredible story

about an operation where other young women

were being recruited, as well as her,

to be brought over to this mansion on Palm Beach island.

She told me that there was a wealthy gentleman

that lived on the island

that was willing to pay these young girls $200 to $300,

sometimes, to go and give explicit sexual massages.

She was 14 years old at the time

that the incident had occurred to her.

Palm Beach Police Department gets word of what's occurring,

and during that investigation, the police found literally

tens of other girls who had been brought

to the mansion and had been sexually abused.

Young -- very young girls.

-Tell me, from the beginning, how you met this gentleman.

-And, at that point, we learned that it was a gentleman

by the name of Jeffrey Epstein.

Palm Beach is a very exclusive island.

These are the top-100 wealthiest people,

sometimes in the world, to have winter homes.

And when I say "winter homes", these are huge mansions

on a very exclusive and wealthy island.

And then, there's West Palm Beach,

which is the mainland portion of Palm Beach County.

But the West Palm Beach area, really,

as you go from the water out west,

you have much-less-wealthy individuals.

You have people living in trailer homes.

What we found was that most of the young girls

came from this area.

A lot of them had troubled youths.

They had troubled backgrounds.

$100, $200 U.S. really meant a lot to them.

If a 50-year-old man drives up in a limousine

or even a Rolls-Royce

and approaches this 14-year-old girl on the street

and says "Hey, young girl, get in the car

and come back to my home, and I'm going to, you know,

have you give me a massage,"

that young girl, even at 14, her defences are high enough

at that point to run away, hopefully.

But when a very sophisticated, attractive older woman

with a British accent approaches and says,

"Hey, you know, you're beautiful.

Come back to the house, and I know a man who is friendly with

the owner of Victoria's Secret,

and you would make a beautiful model.

And we'd love for you to come back and pose for us."

That 14-year-old girl -- all of a sudden,

those defences that would ordinarily be up are now down.

This is a woman who knew what Epstein was going to do.

She was bringing them into the mouth of the lion.

She knew, firsthand, the abuse

that these young girls were going to suffer.

-I wanted to just, like, be quiet and live my life

and just forget about it all.

But then, I can't forget about it.

I'm tired of feeling ashamed,

when I didn't actually do anything wrong.

And I know that I'm one of the lucky ones.

I know that other people have had far worse,

and that's who I want to speak for.

I want to speak for the people, you know,

who can't talk anymore.

I was just a young girl with hopes and dreams,

and I thought I could really make something of my life.

So I started modelling.

I thought, you know, that I could try.

[ Chuckles ]

One day, this beautiful American model approached me

and asked me if I was a model.

I told her that I'd just started modelling,

and then, she said her friend,

who owned Victoria's Secret, was here,

and did I want to meet him?

Because he could help with my modelling career.

So, I was like, "Oh, my God, like,

my dreams are all coming true."

I just couldn't believe it.

What an opportunity.

So, we went to show Jeffrey my portfolio.

I walked into the hotel room, I sat opposite him,

I gave him my modelling book,

and he looked through it and he was like, "Wow.

You have the most amazing figure I've ever seen in my life."

Then he said, "Right, we definitely want to bring you

over from South Africa to New York."

They said that they'd pay for my ticket and get me a visa.

I thought it was going to be the most amazing opportunity

of my life.

But then his office phoned and said, "Pack your bag.

We're going to the Caribbean."

I assumed it was for a photo shoot,

so I said, immediately, "Yes."

It was the most beautiful place you'd ever seen, ever.

The sea there is absolutely exquisite, the turquoise sea.

When I first arrived there, it was just me.

I was staying in a small chalet by the pool.

On the first day I got there,

I found all these disposable cameras.

So, I took -- I kept two of them, or three,

and took a few photos while I was there.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

The little chalet I was made to stay in when I first got there

had this very weird artwork on the wall.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

It was a naked girl, and there was, like,

a big walrus trying to --

It looked like the walrus was trying to rape her.

Yeah, it was a very disturbing picture.

I've never seen a picture like that.

He had a lot of weird stuff around his house.

There was just pictures of naked girls everywhere.

And there was a lot of naked pictures

of Ghislaine around, too.

Well, when I first met Ghislaine,

I was told that she was Epstein's girlfriend.

The thing is, they never --

I didn't even see them hold hands or kiss once

or even give each other a hug, to be honest.

I never saw them, like, come that close.

So it definitely wasn't a romantic relationship.

Jeffrey really liked watching movies.

And the next day, another girl was brought in,

and we were watching a movie.

And this other girl was there,

and she started performing a sex act on him

while I was sitting next to him,

and I was absolutely petrified.

Because I was so young and I had never seen anything like that.

So I just ran out of the room and I was crying.

I was just -- I just didn't know what to do.

There was no hope of getting away.

You know, I was in a foreign country.

I was without any cellphone or money

or means of communication.

I just realised then I was completely trapped.

And there was nothing I could do.

Ghislaine was running the girls, and she'd also tell us when

we had to go to his bedroom.

And you couldn't say no. There was just no option.

You didn't want to make them angry.

It would have been very, very scary making them angry.

No one even tried to stand up against them.

Mnh-mnh.

His bedroom was pitch-dark and ice-cold.

I just checked out of my body

and I just let him do what he wanted,

because I didn't know what else to do.

I tried to escape this room in my mind.

I just tried to pretend it wasn't happening.

Things happened there that scared me so deeply

that I can't even talk about them.

He fed off the terror, off the --

There was something about the energy of a girl

being scared that he liked.

He was taking me back and forth.

I think it was over like -- just under a year and a half.

I was so broken by that point that I just

sort of went along with it.

I went along with anything, I suppose.

I was being ordered to his bedroom

at least three times a day.

And by that point, there were even more girls.

In that time, I saw at least 60 girls coming and going.

At least.

I was 20 when I was taken there.

So, you see, I was lucky

'cause I wasn't as young as the other girls.

It was just like a factory.

He was running a machine, and Ghislaine Maxwell

was the one operating it.

You know, people ask why I went back.

No one disobeyed Epstein.

Before I was sent home, he took me to his office

and he told me that a woman had accused him of rape,

and he planted drugs in her apartment

and had her sent to prison.

And then he said that he had my family's name on a list.

So I just did as I was told, because I was petrified of him,

because of who he was.

I knew that crossing him would be a very, very bad idea.

I never felt okay again after that.

Everything just fell to pieces.

It's very, very hard to understand.

I'm still trying to piece it all together.

♪♪

[ Beep ]

♪♪

-After two weeks of evidence for the prosecution,

it's time for Maxwell's defence.

-They will try and cast doubt

on some of the stories of the victims.

Ultimately, it does come down

to whether you believe the victims

or whether you believe Ghislaine Maxwell,

who has denied all of the charges against her.

-They are expected to try to paint

Maxwell as being something of a victim herself.

-With his sister fighting back in the courtroom,

Kevin Maxwell calls a press conference

and goes on the offensive.

-Our sister has been in pre-trial detention

for 522 days.

She is in the care of the Department of justice.

You really have to ask yourself, in 2021,

what on earth are they doing shackling

a 59-year-old woman in this way every day,

when she represents absolutely no threat to the community?

And so what we're asking for is for them

to live up to the duty of care they owe an innocent person,

who is presumed innocent until a verdict comes in.

Ultimately, the only people that can help are you guys,

because it's simply unacceptable.

You wouldn't want it to happen to your mother,

your sister, your girlfriend, or any friend of yours.

You know, enough is enough. This has got to stop.

-When you have a hunter,

he's going to go after the weakest in the pack.

And that's exactly what Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell

thrived on, is hunting the weakest.

In an effort to discourage them from talking,

they thoroughly dug into the lives of these young girls.

Some of my clients would tell me that they had cars

that were following them down the street

to and from school.

They had vehicles that would show up at their house

late at night and shine lights into their bedroom windows.

They had random phone calls

that were being called at their homes.

It was really unbelievable.

So, we reached out to the Palm Beach Police Department,

and that's when things really began to take off.

-It is now 2:15 p.m.

[ Police radio chatter ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Palm Beach Police Department --

they went in and found that it was highly likely

that Epstein had gotten tipped off to the investigation.

When they arrived at the home,

there were numerous things that were missing,

like security cameras and hard drives to computers.

But there were certain things

that they were able to find and seize,

like phone books and message pads.

Those message pads included numerous different

phone calls to young girls who police knew were underage.

[ Telephone rings ]

Messages about how Epstein was going to be in town...

[ Telephone rings ] ...what his schedule was,

when they could come over to the house.

[ Answering machine rewinding, beeps ]

Those types of things were hard evidence

of what was going on in the home.

[ Dialing ]

And it was at that time that they finally

put together what they felt

was a very solid case to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein

and then turned that over to the state attorney in Palm Beach.

There was a certain amount of hope the feds would be able

to expand this investigation across the country,

well beyond Palm Beach

and even to New York and his private island.

So there was a great deal of hope

that this would end up with Jeffrey Epstein behind bars

for a very long time, if not forever.

And then, all of a sudden, out of the clear blue,

I get a random call in the middle of the day

that Jeffrey Epstein's going to be at the courthouse

and he's going to be giving a plea.

No one had informed me or my clients about this.

No one had told any of the victims

that there was a potential deal in the works.

It was rather shocking that, at points during the plea,

the lawyers actually went up to the judge

and had a private conference,

where no one could hear what they were talking about.

I mean, there's that sinking feeling, as a lawyer,

that something is going on now

that's being hidden from everyone else.

I've been practising law now for 25, 26 years.

I don't think I've ever seen an arraignment like that before.

Under this deal, he was supposed to spend at least a year

behind bars in the county lockup here in Palm Beach.

But, interestingly, we came to learn that his lawyers

applied for release during the day

so that he could go to an office building and do business.

He would stay the day there.

He would get catered lunches, meals.

People would come and visit him.

Young girls would come, other women.

And then, at the end of the day,

he would then drive back to the jail,

where he would then just sleep.

This is a man who was supposed to be behind bars for molesting

and abusing over 40 young girls.

He was essentially spending nights in jail,

and that was about it.

It was incredibly disheartening at the time

to have to explain to my clients the extent

to which the system let them down.

-He's very happy that his jail sentence is over

and he can begin a new chapter in his life.

-In addition to being a society columnist,

it was a natural thing for me to go into public relations,

because I knew exactly what people wanted.

They wanted to be in the columns.

They wanted to be in the papers.

They wanted to be in the glossy magazines.

I knew exactly what they wanted and I knew how to do it.

And I would do that for people -- and I still do.

The problem is, sometimes, these people get in trouble.

After the conviction, Jeffrey Epstein calls me.

Oh, my God, my office freaked out!

You know, the girls in my office are like,

"Jeffrey Epstein's on the phone."

It was, like, embarrassing to even get the call.

So Jeffrey wanted crisis management.

You know, he wanted advice.

So, you know, I put my tie on and I trotted over to the house,

because I wanted to see the house.

This very grand house, supposedly worth $77 million.

And there's this very grand foyer

with a big, curving staircase.

I did notice, throughout the house,

there were a lot of very heavy velvet drapes.

Like, better to keep out the sunlight.

But out walks Jeffrey.

So, we sat down, he asked me what he should do,

and I had no intention of representing him

and I never did.

He never paid me. I never took anything.

He said to me, "Couri, what I really don't want to do

is have 'paedophile billionaire' engraved on my tombstone."

He said, "Every story starts out

with 'paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.'"

In some cases, you can't do it.

You simply can't explain, you know, Mr. Weinstein,

or Ghislaine or Jeffrey Epstein.

I said, you know,

it starts with really showing contrition, confessing."

I said, "Jeffrey, you know, who better than the highest

power on Earth -- in communication with God.

Why don't I get you an audience with the Pope?"

But, of course, you know,

he's already thought of it years ago.

So, I said, "Why don't you give money?

There's an arts foundation,

and people have given away lots and lots of money in order to

sort of whitewash their images."

So, Ghislaine, of course, started her own charity,

potentially or possibly or maybe to help the oceans,

but she really was helping was herself.

-But as Epstein and Maxwell embarked on a charm offensive,

two lawyers were unconvinced.

They were digging behind the public facade,

and were staggered by what they discovered.

-The scale of the sex-trafficking operation

was astronomical.

They were bringing in, you know, up to three different girls

a day at times.

They did it everywhere they went.

They would do it in New York, Florida.

If they were travelling overseas, they would do it.

It was constant. It never stopped.

-They had people recruiting young girls from Eastern Europe,

England, and France.

All over the world.

We have two young women we represent

who were abused by the Epstein sex trafficking --

they were both recruited within the same month.

One was recruited in South Africa.

One was recruited in Los Angeles, California.

-I was a young adult, stars in my eyes,

ready to take on the world, high hopes, big dreams.

I am thinking that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I'm being flown out to New York.

I would be met at the airport with a driver,

with my name on a sign.

That was...

I mean, that was thrilling, you know?

I'm to meet Miss Maxwell at her home.

The outside is beautiful, and I knock on the door.

I walk into this big, beautiful room.

I noticed a framed photo on the wall of her

and ex-President Bill Clinton, and I thought, you know, "Wow."

And a few moments later, out she comes.

Ghislaine told me that I was going to go meet

with her partner, Jeffrey.

She looked right at me and said to me,

"Make sure that you give Jeffrey what he wants,

because Jeffrey always gets what he wants."

Ghislaine knew what was going to happen to me.

She set me up to walk myself to a predator's house,

where he assaulted me.

She knew what was going to happen.

You don't facilitate and organise one of the largest

sex-trafficking rings in the world

without intentionally knowing what you're doing

and without intentionally playing your role.

And not only intentionally, but very masterfully.

She did it very well.

Ghislaine Maxwell changed the entire trajectory of my life.

And years later, I decided that I need to do something.

I began communicating with the FBI

and with my wonderful lawyer, Sigrid.

Thursday morning, I had plugged my phone in to charge,

and when I did, I had accidentally swiped

to the news headlines that pop up.

And there was his face.

It was Jeffrey.

-A wealthy money manager,

whose friends have included presidents and a prince,

is behind bars in Manhattan tonight.

Jeffrey Epstein is accused of sex trafficking

and molesting underage girls.

-Physically, I'm shaking, and my heart is racing.

-The 66-year-old multi-millionaire

hedge-fund manager, also a registered sex offender,

is accused of paying underage girls for massages

and molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York.

-I remember that moment very well.

To have him actually arrested was just monumental

for me and for the women that I represent.

That moment -- it felt really powerful.

They're starting to see the light of justice.

-Breaking news tonight.

The death of convicted sex offender

and part-time Palm Beacher Jeffrey Epstein.

His death has officially been ruled a suicide.

The autopsy report was released late this afternoon

by the New York City Medical Examiner's office.

It says Epstein hanged himself with a bedsheet

in his Manhattan jail cell.

-I wanted to talk about the death of Mr. Epstein.

Do you concur with the opinion that it was a suicide?

-That was the finding of the coroner, sir.

-With a case this high profile,

there's got to be either a major malfunction of the system

or a criminal enterprise at foot to allow this to happen.

Was Mr. Epstein on suicide watch?

-Yes, he was.

-Well, clearly, it didn't work here.

So, we'll await the report,

because all the victims of Mr. Epstein

have to have their heart ripped out,

'cause they'll never see justice.

-When Jeffrey Epstein died, that was really traumatic news

for the women that I represented.

They had hoped to see him in court,

to see him charged with all the crimes he had committed.

So I was very angry that that was taken away from them.

-You get a whole bunch of women who were raped by this guy.

This is a sex-trafficking ring in the United States.

This guy had evidence, he's got co-conspirators,

and there are victims out there

who want to know where the evidence has gone.

-We are not allowed to talk to anybody in our institutions

about anything that happened over the Epstein --

-With all due respect, you said -- I think your quote was,

"We treat every inmate the same."

But not every inmate has equal value

for future criminal investigations.

Jeffrey Epstein was still to testify in a case.

That bastard wasn't able to testify

against his other co-conspirators.

-Even before Jeffrey passed away, I was very hopeful

that the prosecutors would continue to charge people,

including, of course, Ghislaine Maxwell.

-After nearly three weeks,

the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is drawing to a close.

The defence and prosecution make their closing arguments,

and one of Maxwell's friends

is there to witness the final chapter.

-One hears about despicable crimes and terrible criminals.

There's an added layer of personal interest

when it's someone that you've known

and thought you knew and possibly never really knew.

Um...

So it's strangely compelling.

If she's been horribly misjudged and there is some, you know,

plausible explanation that she be found not guilty --

fascinating to see if that's really possible.

It seems so improbable.

Perhaps the truth will eventually emerge.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

-Fascinating day in court

and so completely not what I was expecting.

When I arrived this morning, from everything I'd read,

I was pretty convinced that Ghislaine Maxwell

was going away for a long, long time.

But when the defence spoke, they did a very good job.

I have to say, I'm really shocked.

It's the last thing I was expecting --

to come away feeling that Ghislaine

had some chance of evading these charges.

-Jurors have to decide which version of events to believe.

We don't know how long it's going to take

to come back with a verdict, but we may get one by Christmas,

which is Ghislaine Maxwell's 60th birthday.

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-With Epstein confirmed dead...

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...and the U.S. authorities turning their attention

to Maxwell...

in the U.K., the spotlight fell on one of her old friends.

-Ghislaine's always known Prince Andrew,

but in about 2000, 2001,

she suddenly became Andrew's best friend.

And I think they went on holiday together about eight times.

It had been noted that Prince Andrew

was partying quite a lot.

I was a journalist on the Evening Standard,

and I was told, "It seems something odd's going on here.

Can you have a look into it?"

And the more I looked into it,

the more that Ghislaine Maxwell was inexorably linked

with all these parties and holidays

that Prince Andrew had gone on.

They formed this very strong, symbiotic relationship.

My headline was "Andrew's fixer.

She's the daughter of Robert Maxwell

and she's manipulating his jet-set lifestyle."

The more I got into it, the more I realised

that Epstein was always in the background.

-In 2000, Epstein was a guest at Windsor Castle

and at Sandringham.

He was brought right into the heart

of the royal family at your invitation.

-But certainly at my invitation,

not at the royal family's invitation.

But remember that it was his girlfriend

that was the key element in this.

-Prince Andrew, for some reason,

allowed himself to be persuaded to succumb

to a 50-minute interview.

I remember thinking,

"Who has advised him to do this"?

-One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Roberts,

has made allegations against you.

She says she met you in 2001.

She says she dined with you,

danced with you at Tramp nightclub in London.

She went on to have sex with you in a house

in Belgravia belonging to Ghislaine Maxwell, your friend.

Your response?

-I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady.

None whatsoever.

-You've seen the photo? -I've seen the photograph.

-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.

-The photograph is taken in Ghislaine's Belgravia

mews house.

Ghislaine is to one side, sort of grinning.

You can see the flash reflected in the window.

It's almost certain that the photograph was taken by Epstein.

-I'm not entirely convinced that...

I mean, that is what I would describe as me in that picture,

but I can't -- We can't be certain as to whether or not

that's my hand on her -- whatever it is -- left side.

-Two weeks later, Virginia Roberts

gave her account of that evening.

-He knows what happened.

I know what happened.

And there's only one of us telling the truth,

and I know that's me.

That day, we were having tea,

and Andrew was talking about Fergie,

which is his ex-wife at that point.

And Ghislaine's bad-mouthing Fergie, as well,

and Epstein's just socially awkward,

so I think he's just laughing about everything,

and I'm sitting there, like I was always told to do.

"Sit there, don't talk unless you're talked to."

And Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew

what I do for Jeffrey.

And that made me sick.

There was a bath, and it started there,

and then it led into the bedroom.

And it didn't last very long, the whole, entire procedure.

It was disgusting.

He got up and he said, "Thanks," and walked out, and...

I sat there in bed, just horrified and ashamed

and felt dirty and I had to get up and go and have a shower.

And, you know, the next day,

Ghislaine tells me I did a really good job.

You know, she pats me on the back and said,

"You made him really happy".

It was a wicked time in my life.

It was a really scary time in my life.

♪♪

-One of Jeffrey Epstein's closest confidants

has now been arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been charged now

with six counts related to the serial sexual abuse

and sex trafficking of minors.

-We've been discreetly keeping tabs on

Maxwell's whereabouts as we worked this investigation.

And more recently, we learned she'd slithered away

to a gorgeous property in New Hampshire,

continuing to live a life of privilege,

while her victims live with the trauma

inflicted upon them years ago.

-Today, we announced charges against Ghislaine Maxwell

for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit

and abuse multiple minor girls.

Maxwell has been taken into custody early this morning

and will be presented this afternoon

before a magistrate judge in the district of New Hampshire.

♪♪

-The jury in Ghislaine Maxwell's trial

has been out for five days,

and there's still no verdict.

-If the verdict isn't guilty,

I think people will be very angry, but also not surprised.

I wouldn't be surprised if she walks free.

-Alright, we're on top of breaking news,

breaking into regular programming for WFLX,

to tell you that the jury has reached a verdict

in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial.

-We're not going to answer any questions,

but this is Teresa Helm.

-It's hugely important that she's found guilty,

because the world is not a safe place with her in it.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-A few words' reaction over here?

-We firmly believe in Ghislaine's innocence.

Obviously, we are very disappointed with the verdict.

We have already started working on the appeal

and we are confident that she will be vindicated.

-I've known my sister 60 years.

I choose to believe my sister's view of these events.

I don't believe she's capable of the charges

that she's been convicted for.

She has been scapegoated in a process

that was flawed from the start.

She has not had justice.

-It's been a long road, longer than it should've been.

There were many people who knew about this and kept silent.

It could not have existed on the scale it existed,

for the time it existed without the participation

of lots of very rich and powerful people.

It was about money. It was about power.

It was about influence.

♪♪

♪♪

-I never thought it would happen.

These people have got away

with what they've got away with for many years.

You've got to keep them away

so that they can't harm other people.

You know, people are waking up to the truth.

-Why didn't you take your position of power

and do something good with it?

You know, why didn't you do something positive in the world?

What a waste.

-My father believed that you had to make your own way in life.

It would be marvellous to be able to emulate

some of the positive

and wonderful things that he did with his life.

That'd be great.

-All life is a choice.

And if you want to succeed,

then you have got to commit yourself.

Be single-minded.

Duty is more important than love.

That's also what I'm trying to teach my children.

The achievement at the end of it is that I feel that my life,

which I'm continuing to live to the full

and will do so until the day I die,

I will have left the world a slightly better place

by having lived in it and have influenced my children

in the right direction.

♪♪

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♪♪