Monsters Maxwell and Epstein

This is one heinous story of the monsters Maxwell and Epstein. Working as a receptionist at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion, Maria Farmer thought the young girls coming down the stairs crying had lost out on modelling jobs. But the aspiring artist says Ghislaine Maxwell cruised Central Park at school chucking out time, in search of “nubiles” to bring to her on-off boyfriend for sex.

Speaking on the new Sky documentary, Ghislaine Maxwell: Epstein’s Shadow  Maria reveals the twisted daily errand executed by monsters Maxwell and Epstein put her “cold and vicious” female boss in a foul temper.

“Ghislaine was very moody and terribly materialistic,” says Maria, who was abused by Epstein, as was younger sister Annie. “She would go rollerblading for hours and then she’d be in a really good mood - but she’d turn. “Every day at 3.30pm she would just shift and she’d be screaming orders at me and screaming orders at the chef or the maid then she’d run out the door.

“At the time I was like ‘what’s going on with this person?' She was going out to find the nubiles (young girls) who she said were models, but were little girls that she was procuring for Jeffrey. And she would do this by going after school to Central Park.

“I rode with her and saw how she did this, in the limousine. She’d see a girl in uniform, pop out of the car and go get that girl’s number. It’s terrifying.”

Billionaire businessman Epstein - who abused dozens of young girls as young as 14 - was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while he was being held on sex trafficking charges.

British socialite Maxwell, who is accused of grooming underage girls for her sex-obsessed lover, is currently awaiting trial on charges related to sex trafficking minors. She has pleaded not guilty.

The three-part documentary about monsters Maxwell and Epstein also looks at claims that Epstein and Maxwell, 58, taped dignitaries having sex with young girls at the billionaire’s homes in New York and Palm Beach in order to blackmail them.

Another survivor Sarah Ransome, who met the couple when she was 22, says Maxwell would summon her to the bedroom when Epstein wanted sex. “When Jeffrey wanted me, Ghislaine would call me to his bedroom,” she says.“Ghislaine was always on the phone, organising things. Ghislaine knew every time she called me, I was going to be raped. Every time.”

Maria was a student at the New York Academy of Art where Maxwell was a regular guest at gallery viewings, in 1995. Her contact with the couple began when Epstein bought one of Maria’s paintings from a series which featured her prepubescent sister Annie, often scantily clad.

“I thought they were a weird couple, strange,” she says.

“Jeffrey was all smiley and a little bit too much, very gregarious, a warm, affable guy. She was just kind of standing there pretending to be nice.

Epstein then called Maria and offered her a job, helping with his art collection but also minding the front desk at the New York mansion where much of the alleged abuse took place.

“I had a big white book and I signed people in and they recorded everyone who came and went," she says.

"Jeffrey showed me the room where he had all the video cameras and he just gave me a little tour. He was very proud of it.

“They told me they were married and that’s why I felt comfortable.”

Although the marriage claim was a lie the pair were lovers and Maxwell ran the household as well as managing Epstein’s diary and greeting powerful visitors to the house.

Monsters Maxwell and Epstein rubbed shoulders with the likes of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew - who was later accused of having sex with 17-year-old victim Virginia Roberts.

“There were a lot of children, always little girls, and she said they were modelling for all kinds of companies,” says Maria. “Then they had dignitaries coming and going.

“There were a couple of times the little girls cried. I remember a little girl in her school skirt, with braces, coming down the stairs crying.

"Ghislaine told me ‘She didn’t get the job. Modelling is a tough business.’ She was very cold and vicious.”

When Maria was offered an art project in 1996, Epstein told her she could go to the Ohio estate of pals Les Wexner - owner of Victoria’s Secret - and his wife Annabel, where she would have space to paint.

“I thought this was going to be a wonderful experience. It ruined my life. It was the very experience that ruined my life,” she says.

“While I was on the Wexner estate, Ghislaine and Jeffrey came on three occasions to visit over the summer.

“One time I was in the room reading, it was late in the evening, and in comes Ghislaine Maxwell in a robe. It made me very nervous, sick in my stomach because why was she being intimate like this?

“She took me into Jeffrey’s room and I’d never been in that room.

“Jeffrey was watching a TV show. Ghislaine said, ‘Rub Jeffrey’s foot right now, his feet are hurting.’ Then he patted the bed and I sat down.

"Ghislaine sat next to me and then lay down and they began assaulting me together. I’ve blocked out a lot of it but I remember looking at the ceiling. I started crying.

"It felt very mechanical and bizarre what was happening to me. From that point on, I have not been the same person.”

Distraught, Maria fled back to New York and told the police of her ordeal but was advised to speak to the FBI.

She called the number given to her and spoke to a federal agent for 45 minutes - but no action was taken at the time.

“He seemed very unfazed by what I was saying,” she says. “I asked the FBI to do their job and they failed. I gave them everything in 1996 and they did nothing.”

Maria believes Epstein was tipped off about the report and she claims Ghislaine threatened her family’s life in a fit of fury.

“Someone called me and said I should never have spoken to the FBI. I hadn’t told anyone so that frightened me,” she says.

“Then one day Ghislaine called me, screaming and shouting. She threatened my family, she threatened to burn my house down, there were numerous threats against my life.

“Until the assault I had the greatest respect for Jeffrey - but I wouldn’t have put anything past Ghislaine and at that point I saw what she was. She is a monster.”

She later discovered her sister Annie, then 16, had also been a victim of Epstein - being forced to take part in a topless massage.

It was a decade before Epstein was first arrested, in 2006, following multiple allegations that he had sexually assaulted girls as young as 14, at his Palm Beach home.

Incredibly, after an FBI investigation, he struck a ‘non-prosecution deal’, which exempted him from criminal charges if he pleaded guilty to lesser prostitution charges, register as a sex offender, and pay restitution to three dozen victims identified by the FBI.

It also protected his alleged co-conspirators from facing charges.

The documentary about monsters Maxwell and Epstein examines the possible link between Epstein’s hold over powerful men, caught on film during sex, and his lenient treatment - and Maria believes Maxwell was involved in the plot.

She says the video cameras Epstein so proudly showed her were all trained on “private” areas like bedrooms and bathrooms, where they recorded the liaisons with young girls.

“I believe they were working together,” she says. “Ghislaine was getting children and they were being put into horrible situations with these dignitaries and they were taped. There was a definite blackmail situation going on.”