Epstein 101: Coercion and Abuse

Alongside the more willing associates, many of Epstein and Maxwell’s accomplices had originally started as victims of these expert predators. After these unfortunate targets had been brought into the fold, they soon began to be groomed for their specific roles within the enterprise. Many of the people who aligned themselves with Epstein and Maxwell had been through a similar grooming process themselves. This included the normalization of behaviour which would on any other occasion be seen as unacceptable, the main difference is that adults are expected to understand and recognize such behaviour.

Ghislaine Maxwell was very much like her father, Robert Maxwell, in the way that she could normalize absurd or grotesque behaviour. The Maxwell family had a reputation for creating controversy wherever they went, seemingly on purpose. Ghislaine Maxwell used her various skills and abilities to convince underage girls that their experiences with Jeffrey Epstein were completely normal. She was well known for asserting herself in the position of “a friend” to many of the young girls who were at the same time being traumatized at the hands of her boyfriend. Maxwell quickly formed bonds with each potential victim, pretending to show interest in their lives while all the time conspiring to see them molested and raped.

Named in the 2021 indictment against Ghislaine Maxwell, a 44-year-old lady testified under the pseudonym “Kate” – also referred to as “Minor Victim-3”. Her testimony claimed that, after her initial recruitment process, Ghislaine Maxwell systematically groomed her. Kate says that she was approximately 18 years old when Epstein and Maxwell invited her to their Palm Beach estate in Florida. She recounts that it had a beautiful swimming pool and that the walls were littered with photographs of naked young girls, “They were in almost every room,” Kate stated, going on to say of Maxwell, “I was excited to be friends with her. She was exciting… She was everything I wanted to be.”

Kate told Maxwell all the details about her problems at home, her mother’s poor health, and of her want to pursue a music career. This is how the process of grooming begins, and it is very similar to how one makes friends generally, except in this case, Kate was being groomed to have sex with a rich pederast. Maxwell displayed obvious interest in Kate, telling the teenager about her boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, who was a wealthy philanthropist with a passion for helping young people. Kate testified that she was left with the distinct impression that it “would be great for me to meet him,” also stating:

“She said he was going to love me and that I was exactly the kind of person he would help.”

However, as with all grooming techniques, Maxwell’s actions were to create the perception that she and her target were becoming friends.

When Kate entered her guest room in Palm Beach, she was surprised to find that there was a schoolgirl outfit waiting for her on the bed. Kate also testified that she asked Maxwell what the costume was for, and Maxwell responded by handing her a tray and telling her she “thought it would be fun” to dress up while Kate was bringing Epstein his tea. Soon after entering the Palm Beach property, Epstein initiated low-level sexual contact with Kate who recounted that:

“She asked me if I had fun and told me I was such a good girl and that I was one of his favorites.”

On one occasion Maxwell called Kate saying that Epstein’s massage therapist had cancelled and asking if Kate could “do her a favour because [she] had such strong hands.” Kate had been complimented, treated kindly, and made to feel special, but once she had formed a significant level of trust towards this new and exciting friend, Maxwell’s job was almost done. Kate testified that during this meeting, Epstein was already wearing nothing but a robe which he soon slipped off. This sudden shock could cause anyone significant alarm, but escape wasn’t going to be easy while Maxwell remained standing in the doorway. According to Kate’s testimony, Maxwell handed her some massage oils and shut the door. That’s when Epstein first initiated sexual contact with his victim.

After the event, Maxwell allegedly asked Kate: “How’d it go? Did you have fun? Was it good?” This normalization of abuse in real-time is a further part of the grooming process which pedophile predators use against their vulnerable victims. On the third occasion when Kate met Epstein, Maxwell simply told them to “Have a good time,” before shutting the door. The hypernormalization of abuse in these situations was often followed closely by a rewarding compliment for the compliance of the victim. After that occasion, Kate recalled Maxwell saying:

“You’re such a good girl. I’m so happy you were able to come… he obviously likes you a lot.”

Maxwell was an expert at acting as though very bizarre behaviour was completely customary. The aforementioned Carolyn also testified that Maxwell entered Epstein’s massage room while Carolyn was nude. Carolyn states that Maxwell felt her hips, buttocks, and breasts, telling the young girl that she “had a great body for Mr. Epstein.” Carolyn also went on to reveal that, on that occasion, Maxwell groped her breasts before leaving the room. Maxwell was diverse and flexible in utilizing many expert grooming techniques to get girls to not only become more compliant but also drop their boundaries.

While grooming Kate, Maxwell worked slowly so as not to spook the young lady too soon. She systematically gave the nervous young girl reassurance and instilled in her a false sense of confidence, while at the same time, Maxwell was crossing Kate’s boundaries more frequently. Maxwell didn’t use this technique with all of the victims, she only saw some of her victims as having future potential and, with these select few, she worked slowly to get them to do whatever she and Epstein desired. Identified as Jane Doe #2, one survivor of Epstein and Maxwell stated:

“Things happened slowly over time. It was almost like that analogy of a frog being in a pan of water and slowly turning the flame up.”

Although Ghislaine Maxwell’s involvement was vital to lure and groom these young unsuspecting victims, the clearest examples of the grooming and seduction process relating to child sexual abuse were of course the acts committed mainly by Epstein himself.

If you were to extract a repeated theme from the testimony of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, you would get a relatively clear picture of the techniques he used to trap these girls into a cycle of abuse. Witnesses often speak of walking into a room with a robed Jeffrey Epstein who’d quickly expose himself to them. When young girls, who have not learnt coping strategies or lack the confidence to assert themselves, are suddenly placed in this kind of scenario, they often become obedient and compliant. As previously mentioned, Epstein and Maxwell were relatively fluid and adaptive in how they incorporated their techniques, with some of Epstein’s victims describing him as acting in the manner of a stereotypical pederast, complimenting and reassuring the victim as he assaulted them in what an offender like Epstein or Maxwell may see as a “loving” manner.

However, other victims describe an emotionless Jeffrey Epstein masturbating on the massage table whilst he touched their naked bodies. A much smaller portion of his victims describe him as a monster who was fuelled by a tangible sense of the fear which emanated from his young and inexperienced prey. Like most psychopaths, all of Epstein’s behaviours seem to have been ostensibly driven by a need for power and control over a vulnerable human. But it must also be noted that, although a lot of the available evidence points at Epstein being a multi-faced villain who exhibits a range of criminal traits, this is unusual. Criminal profiling has advanced rapidly since its inception, and, although there are those who deviate from the standard models, most criminals do exhibit repeated patterns of predictable behaviour while offending. Yet, it must also be noted that a fraction of the testimony in the case against Epstein describes a pattern of criminal behaviour which is unexpected. Although seemingly insignificant in the grander scheme of things, that fraction of testimony doesn’t fit Epstein’s normal modus operandi in criminal profiling terms and must eventually be examined more thoroughly.

Even though Epstein’s actions towards young ladies were mainly to feed his desires, they also allowed him to test each girl while they were under pressure. It could be easily argued that the victim’s initial experience of being trapped in a room with a sadistic wealthy billionaire was all part of a twisted job interview.

Each potential candidate had already been carefully selected by a well-organized and highly focused grooming operation. They then met their prospective employer and instead of the usual interview questions, the target was posed with an extremely pressurized situation which then invoked a range of extreme emotions. This may have been a shocking experience for each of his victims, but for Epstein himself, testing the coping mechanism of each of these girls was the nub of his reasoning.

If one examines each of the victim’s testimony concerning their initial experience of abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, one may be able to argue that any anomalies in his criminal profile could be due to other reasons. Epstein also dabbled in the art of sex compromise and he may have been purposely testing these potential recruits to see if they were viable to be involved in much more serious high-level operations. Regardless, it is easy to see who Epstein considered to be vital to their overall operation, and, in essence, who had passed or failed his sick test.

Chauntae Davies gave evidence of her own experience of being raped by Jeffrey Epstein, and her testimony provides a good example of the potential levels to Epstein’s sadistic pederast nature:

“I began my massage, trying not to let him smell my fear and obvious discomfort, but before I knew what was happening, he grabbed onto my wrist and tugged me towards the bed. I tried to pull away, but he was unbuttoning my shorts and pulling my body onto his already naked body faster than I could think. I was searching for words but all I could say was, ‘No, please stop,’ but that just seemed to excite him more.”

Chauntae Davies would spend two weeks in hospital after Epstein had raped her. When talking about this period of her life Davies is quoted as stating that her time was spent “vomiting myself to death”.

One survivor of Epstein, who was identified as Jane Doe #9, gave testimony which helps us see one of Epstein’s main techniques of seduction, where he offered the target a supposed “sexual education”. She would say of her experience:

“When I was 15 years old, I flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane to Zorro Ranch, where I was sexually molested by him for many hours. What I remember most vividly was him explaining to me how beneficial the experience was for me and how much he was helping me to grow.”

Whether or not Epstein believed that his molestation of this young girl would really “help her to grow”, these are techniques which are commonly used by male offenders who are sexually attracted to young girls, they are the techniques of a child molester.

If you calculate the actual data, the scale of Epstein’s offending was completely unbelievable. Jeffrey Epstein was systematically assaulting at least two to three girls a day from the early 90s for a decade or more. If these numbers are true and the operation is as described, Epstein himself committed at least 8000 sexual offences over a ten-year period alone. Trying to fathom the sheer scale of his crimes is an almost impossible task, but he couldn’t do all of this alone. Although Epstein and Maxwell were the definite apexes of this pedophile power pyramid, others facilitated and organized the industrial grooming program which they were running. Some of these were victims of grooming themselves, and others were simply complicit.

In this freaky world, created by this sick duo of child molesters, girls were being moulded to perform certain tasks. Most of Epstein and Maxwell’s young victims became fractured psychologically and this led to an array of complex conclusions. Some girls successfully escaped their sphere of influence while others kept returning until they were too old to be attractive to Epstein—this appeared to happen once a girl reached about 18 years old. A very carefully curated minority of Epstein’s victims were used as tools in the other operations Epstein and Maxwell were organizing.

On this sordid conveyor belt of industrial sexual exploitation, many girls became trapped and found themselves in situations which they previously had never thought possible. A majority of the commentators and the members of the general public who have been watching the Epstein case develop are often unable to make a categorical distinction between Epstein’s victims and his collaborators.

In any case where people have been groomed on mass to be sexually exploitative, it is always the initial groomers themselves who are responsible for the bulk of the crimes. However, they often use and train their victims to become groomers by proxy,, this was very much the case with Epstein and Maxwell.

Anyone daring to investigate or comment on the Epstein case is left treading carefully, for some of the people who were working for the pedophile billionaire and his sickening partner in crime are also likely to be victims of manipulation themselves. Some others knew exactly what was happening and continued to benefit from the operation regardless.

Groomed or Groomer?

For Jeffrey Epstein to have a long queue of suitable victims who met the very strict age-specific criteria which he demanded, he needed a team of collaborators. These were the people who were organizing the veritable army of underage “masseuses” and ensuring their compliance by either constant reassurance while being instilled with a false sense of emotional support, or by the use of threats. The team which organized the systematic abuse of hundreds, if not thousands, of girls, was headed up by Maxwell and included a group of people whose task it was to ensure Epstein had a steady flow of children and teenage girls to molest whenever the mood took him.

The people who supported Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal endeavour are not necessarily classified in criminal profiling terms as preferential pedophiles like their employers. In fact, most of them probably wouldn’t even fit the standard classification of any specific type of pedophile. However, even with that taken into consideration, some people may say that the actions of Epstein and Maxwell’s closest collaborators are equal or worse than those of their sick masters.

These well-groomed employees of Maxwell and Epstein were busy organizing, preparing, and enacting, the regular systematic abuse of children daily, with no apparent care for the damage they were doing to each individual they targeted. Epstein and Maxwell may have been running the show, but without the help of these so-called ‘co-conspirators’, their operation would have probably been impossible to manage and could have seen them become exposed much sooner.

One of the key members of this elite grooming gang was Sarah Kellen, who was employed as Epstein’s Assistant and has been regularly named in court cases as a co-conspirator in the Epstein/Maxwell sexual exploitation operation. Kellen was fundamental to the recruitment and grooming of young girls, as well as being willing to make pseudo-pedophilia imagery to feed the darkest desires of her employer.

The West Palm Beach lawyer who represented several accusers in lawsuits targeting Kellen, Spencer T. Kuvin, said, “She saw herself as the boss,” going on to state, “Sarah was really running that organization, bringing girls and getting them in and out of the Palm Beach home.”

It was Kellen’s role to greet the unsuspecting victims arriving at the mansion, where she then escorted them to a room with a massage table where Epstein was waiting, often wearing nothing but a towel or a bathrobe.

Even though many people are quick to accuse Sarah Kellen of being completely complicit with Epstein and Maxwell’s sexual exploitation operation, the truth concerning Sarah Kellen, as with many others who worked within the wider Epstein team, may not be so simple. In fact, Kellen’s life leading up to her employment in this evil unit may have already primed her to be easily groomed and abused by Jeffrey Epstein. Sarah Kellen had grown up as a Jehovah’s Witness and was reportedly married off by the age of 17 years old.

Before she began working for the billionaire pedophile, she had been expelled from the Jehovah’s Witnesses and, as with many religiously rigid organizations, shunned by the community she had grown up within. As a newly single former-teen-bride, who had been completely ousted by her community and family, Kellen herself was vulnerable to exploitation. She may not have been a child, but Kellen was very much alone in the world and she had experienced extremely traumatic events just before being given her position as an assistant to Jeffrey Epstein.

In 2020, Sarah Kellen’s parents stated that they had known virtually nothing about their daughter’s occupation because they had become estranged from Kellen when she was 18 or 19 years old. In the same article it was also reported:

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses have only seen Kellen, 41, a handful of times and still find it upsetting to see her face in family portraits or hear her name, as well as stating, that “their daughter was naive and vulnerable when she met the multi-millionaire pedophile.”

Kellen had met her first husband, Noa Bonk, through the church and moved to Hawaii with him to get married. The marriage quickly soured with rumours of Sarah Kellen being more interested in a “glamorous life of modelling and fashion“.

Kellen was expelled from the church for allegedly leading an “immoral lifestyle” which included reported nude modelling. The aforementioned article went on to state that the nude image in question appeared to be “a modelling assignment for a life drawing art class rather than pornography”. Sarah Kellen’s mother, Mary Kellen, told the press that:

“She wasn’t mistreated or shunned, she made her own choices. She turned her back on Jehovah God, her conduct went against the standards.”

She also stated:

“It put us in a position where we could not have an association with her unless it was really necessary. I couldn’t look at her pictures. I had to put them all away. Even when I heard her name it was emotionally traumatic for me.’”

But the story of the young Sarah Kellen also has obvious contradictions when one scrutinizes the details further.

Sarah Kellen’s parents say that she was married at 17 years old and that the marriage only lasted three years before Kellen’s behaviour saw her pulled before the ranks of the Hawaiian chapter of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and expelled. Mary Kellen also states that “Sarah was quite young, 18 or 19,” when she was first recruited into Jeffrey Epstein’s operation. Noa Bonk, Kellen’s first husband, has remained largely unavailable for comment but has claimed that Sarah was 18 years old when they married and that the pair had parted on good terms.

Kellen was so busy living a jet-setting lifestyle that Noa Bonk was forced to serve her their divorce papers on the tarmac of a runway. Kellen kept in sporadic contact with her parents and there are clues to her state of mind during this period. It became thematic for Kellen to apologize during these infrequent messages to her parents. She clearly felt guilty for causing them any pain or distress but she also told them that her employment was causing her concern, stating in one email, reportedly from the year 2000:

“I just feel so confused, it’s hard to express what I feel because half the time I’m not even sure.”

It does appear that Sarah Kellen may indeed classify herself as a victim of Epstein and Maxwell’s professional grooming operation. In a Daily Beast article entitled, “Is One of Epstein’s Co-Conspirators Suing His Estate?,” it is reported that: “A mystery woman is suing for Epstein’s cash, saying she’s “virtually bankrupt” from having to defend herself against accusations relating to the pedophiles sex crimes.”⁵ The ‘mystery woman’ is identified only as Jane Doe in court documents but there are many clues to the claimant being Sarah Kellen.

The complaint, which was filed by the law firm Kaiser Saurborn & Mair – a firm which also represents another Epstein survivor, Jennifer Araoz – stated that their client “seeks justice for the sexual crimes perpetrated against her by Jeffrey Epstein over the course of many years and for the abuse, manipulation and exploitation she suffered at his hands.” It also states, “This lawsuit is about Jane Doe claiming her power, becoming a survivor, not a victim, and getting restitution for the sexual crimes perpetrated against her.” The filing of the complaint was met with a strongly worded response from the lawyers of multiple Epstein survivors, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. Sigrid McCawley, who represents the law firm said that a potential co-conspirator filing for damages against the Epstein estate is “a shameless act and a disgraceful insult to the real victims.”

But the court filings also revealed some of what the accuser claimed happened to her at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein with the complaint stating:

“Epstein frequently directed Jane Doe to turn her head back during their sexual encounters, telling her that he did not want to see her face.”

Kellen married a NASCAR driver in 2013, changing her last name to “Vickers”. Whether or not Sarah Kellen sees herself as a victim, in reality, she was vital to every part of Epstein and Maxwell’s operation. She didn’t only conspire to commit illegal acts for money, she was profiteering from the abuse of exploited young girls and was busy luring them into Epstein’s massage room, grooming them, arranging for them to be raped, and then managing any potential consequences. Yet, in the twisted world of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, even Sarah Kellen could still be classed as a victim.

Alongside Sarah Kellen, helping to organise and facilitate Epstein’s sexual abuse, was a carefully selected team which included Polish-born Adriana Ross. She was a former Playboy model who allegedly helped organise Epstein’s abuse. Ross had moved to Florida in 2002, where she was soon hired to work at the Epstein estate.

Ross also called herself Adriana Mucinska and was a frequent flier onboard the infamous Lolita Express, with flight records showing that Ross accompanied US President Bill Clinton on the well-renowned party plane. Ross was questioned in a 2010 civil suit targeted at Prince Andrew’s participation in the pedophile sex ring. Ross has repeatedly refused to comment, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights whilst under official questioning.

One of the more senior members of the Epstein and Maxwell’s grooming gang was Lesley Groff, Epstein’s Executive Assistant. Groff coordinated the travel and transportation of Epstein and his entourage, including underage girls who were being trafficked specifically for sex. In a 2017 lawsuit, it alleged that she was also responsible for arranging the massage itineraries of Epstein’s many victims.

Groff is also said to have ensured the girls complied with “the rules of behaviour imposed upon them by the enterprise.” Lesley Groff was treated well by Epstein and was seen by him as being a vital member of their organisation. In 2004, she announced that she was pregnant and that she intended to leave the group, Epstein wooed her by buying her a Mercedes and offered to pay for a full-time nanny.⁸ He told reporters: “There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood.” Groff is understood to have been paid a salary of around $200,000.

With the help of this small team, Epstein and Maxwell were able to effectively manipulate and control hundreds of girls throughout the bulk of their offending.

These were some of the main conspirators for what was an illegal enterprise which trafficked vulnerable girls across national and continental borders. They were not the only people creating an essence of normality within this lurid operation designed by Epstein and Maxwell. Many of Epstein and Maxwell’s friendship group was made up of some rather cliched characters from high-born families and they were also utilized in different ways by the sex offending duo. Their rich and powerful allies gave Epstein and Maxwell further credibility and provided their group with extra protection from official scrutiny. However, this high-level access also provided them with potential targets and marks for future compromise operations.

All of the people who regularly swam in Epstein’s shark-infested waters were exposed to illegal activity daily. It would be impossible for anyone who spent a significant amount of time with Epstein and Maxwell to ignore the illicit behaviour and the blatant sexual abuse and trafficking of exploited children. But all of Epstein and Maxwell’s close associates were mainly clinging to the pair for their financial benefit and, in return, many became morally and ethically flexible. These people may have been groomed in various ways, but they were lured and seduced by two of the oldest enticements in the book, power and wealth.

As we all know, Epstein and Maxwell had formed this freaky world of organised pedophilia for more than just their sick desires. Once they had a close team of collaborators willing to do whatever they demanded, as well as a group of young girls who they had groomed as veritable sex slaves, Maxwell and Epstein began their sophisticated sexual compromise and general influence operations. They had assembled one of the most professional and focused grooming gangs in recorded history and, as previously mentioned, it wasn’t only young girls that this dastardly pair were targeting for grooming. But like with any outlandish plan designed and implemented by intelligence-linked psychopaths, not everything went to plan.

Those Left Behind

For many years, hundreds of survivors who had suffered abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were completely ignored. Their experiences were covered up, denied and belittled before they finally began to taste some form of justice. When Jeffrey Epstein was found strangled to death in his prison cell, much of the testimony and the mountains of evidence against him remained left unheard.

To placate the loss of justice, the judiciary agreed to hear testimony from some of the survivors. These were only a handful of the voices, survivors of one of the most prolific and well-protected sex offenders of modern times. I have already quoted some of the testimony from the individuals affected, but what I haven’t explained to you in this article is what happened to the groomed girls afterwards. Specifically, what had happened once they had left the sphere of influence of Maxwell and Epstein’s sickening operation?

At the aforementioned hearings, Anouska Georgiou said of her experience:

“Something I think is very important to communicate is that loss of innocence, trust, and joy that is not recoverable. The abuse, spanning several years, was devaluing beyond measure and affected my ability to form and maintain healthy relationships, both in my work and my personal life. He could not begin to fathom what he took from us.”

This example of Anouska’s struggle was echoed by others who spoke, with the survivor referred to as Jane Doe #3 stating:

“My world kind of spiraled after that. I stopped going on modeling castings. I gained weight. I became depressed. I stopped going out with my friends. And only five months after I had been in New York City to pursue my dream, I left. I left the modeling industry, I left New York City, and I totally switched my career path.”

These sentiments were also the essence of what Jane Doe #4 stated:

“We will always carry irreparable damage and pain throughout our lives after this. It’s something that’s never going to go away. Whoever we marry in our life, whatever future we have in our life, it’s always going to be something that’s always there for us.”

Many of Epstein’s victims were lured into a world which remains unimaginable for most outside observers today. The lavish lifestyles of these wealthy players made it easy to attract the sheep directly into the wolf’s lair. Many of the targets of this illicit ruse were very young schoolgirls who were bedazzled by a carefully crafted illusion that these sex offenders created with their extreme wealth and power.

These girls nervously stepped across the threshold of Epstein’s many properties only to find themselves stripped of more than just their clothes. Each girl experienced a systematic stripping of their dignity through the molestation and abuse by their emotionless assailant. Jennifer Araoz spoke of her journey:

“He robbed me of my dreams. He robbed me of my chance to pursue a career I always adored. He stole my chance at really feeling love because I was so scared to trust anyone for so many years that I had such severe anxiety. I didn’t want to leave my house, let alone my bed.”

It should also be considered that some survivors of sexual abuse don’t make it to old age, a fate which almost met Jane Doe #10, who told of her darkest moments:

“Epstein targeted and took advantage of me, a young girl, whose mother had recently died a horrific death and whose family structure had deteriorated. His actions placed me, a young girl, into a downward spiral to the point where I purchased a gun and drove myself to an isolated place to end my suffering.”

The survivor referred to as Jane Doe #6 stated:

“Jeffrey Epstein stole my innocence. He gave me a life sentence of guilt and shame. I do not consider myself a victim. I see myself a survivor.”

Hundreds of victims experienced hardship and pain after their own experience of sexual abuse and only a few were able, or willing enough, to speak out loud about their own stories. But there are a few people whose names will always resonate strongly with anyone who has followed the Epstein case closely enough. One of the most vocal and seemingly determined survivors of Epstein is Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who could easily be described as the face of the Epstein survivors. Virginia didn’t sound like a victim when she spoke after Epstein’s death, she sounded defiant. She reminded all who had ears to hear that:

“He [Epstein] will not have his day in court, but the reckoning of accountability has begun, supported by the voices of these brave and beautiful women in this courtroom today. The reckoning must not end — it must continue. He did not act alone and we, the victims, know that.”

The systematic grooming of young girls on an industrial scale for the sake of Epstein’s perversion wreaked devastation among the people who were his targets. Grooming and sexual exploitation have an effect not only on the lives of individual survivors but also on the lives of the close friends and family of the victims, as well as all of their future relationships. This damage is still reverberating throughout the lives of every single one of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims.

In the eyes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, these people were seen as little more than disposable soulless objects and were treated as such. Epstein and Maxwell were compulsive narcissists, who were able to see the damage they were doing to their young victims and who fed off the discomfort and pain of their captives. This was very much to the benefit of their wider intelligence operation because these elite pedophiles weren’t only grooming their targets to feed their sick desires, but they were also psychologically breaking these vulnerable girls, one by one, in an effort to find those with potential. Those who met the required criteria would go on to be used in high-level sexual compromise and influence operations.

This method worked very well in meeting the short-term sexual needs of Epstein and Maxwell, but it also allowed for them to test each girl under extreme pressure and for them to find those whose coping mechanisms suited the required characteristics needed to become a useful controlled asset.

This was a complex psychological operation which was designed to break people mentally and then use trauma to form the desired behaviours required of the chosen recruits. These young girls weren’t only groomed for sexual exploitation, but in many ways, they were psychologically reprogrammed to respond positively to abusive situations and scenarios.

One of the most significant issues to note about this affair is the fact that many of Epstein’s targets had been previous victims of abuse and so were already primed to respond predictably to further abusive advances under certain situations. This included switching off or shutting down parts of their emotional input and output as a survival mechanism. Yet, people who suffer sexual abuse can only suppress the effects of their experiences for so long before their psyches fracture. For many survivors of sexual exploitation, that psychological debt only catches up with them many years after they suffer their initial experiences of abuse.

For a decade or so, Epstein’s grooming enterprise was one of the most complicated and sophisticated sex compromise and influence operations in history, targeting people with significant power. Once the grooming of enough young girls for sexual exploitation had been completed, Epstein and Maxwell had the fuel they required for their proverbial fire.

Using the lure of sexually exploited teenage girls, Epstein and Maxwell could get on with their main goal. They were planning to groom, compromise and influence some of the most powerful people on the world stage, and they did just that.

In the 3rd part of the Epstein 101 series, we‘ll learn about the history of blackmail and sexual compromise and we’ll also begin to examine how Epstein wielded his influence.

Sources:

1 Kate Briquelet (Dec. 06, 2021) Jeffrey Epstein Victim Says Ghislaine Maxwell Made Her Dress in Schoolgirl Outfit to Serve Him Tea: The Daily Beast

2 AFP/Newswire (Aug. 28, 2019) Epstein accusers detail sexual abuse in emotional court hearing: TRTWorld

3 Amy Julia Harris, Frances Robles, Mike Baker and William K. Rashbaum, (Aug. 29, 2019) How a Ring of Women Allegedly Recruited Girls for Jeffrey Epstein: The New York Times

4 Ben Ashford (Jul. 17, 2020) ‘I fear Sarah’s next. ‘ Parents of Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘lieutenant’ Sarah Kellen worry their daughter will be arrested and charged in Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring, as they claim teen was ‘brainwashed’: MailOnline

5 Kate Briquelet, (Mar. 27, 2020) Is One of Epstein’s Co-Conspirators Suing His Estate?: The Daily Beast

6 Ben Ashford (Aug. 16, 2019) Time to confess? Epstein ‘scheduler’ and former model Adriana Ross dodges questions about his sick past as she flees Florida church in tears: MailOnline

7 Nytimespost (Dec. 31, 2021) Epstein assistant accused of supplying girls for the pedophile WILL NOT face charges: New York Times Post

8 Landon Thomas Jr. (Feb. 5, 2005) Working for Top Bosses on Wall St. Has Its Perks: The New York Times