Prosecution rests case after 4th accuser testifies in Maxwell trial

NEW YORK • Testifying at British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial, a woman said that while on a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico ranch in 1996 when she was 16, Maxwell told her to undress and lie down for a back massage.

"She pulled the sheet down... and started rubbing on my chest," Ms Annie Farmer, 42, testified.

"I was surprised. I wanted so badly to get off of the table."

The testimony from Ms Farmer, the fourth accuser to testify, came on Friday, the 10th day of the trial in the US district court in Manhattan.

Not long after she finished testifying, prosecutors said they were resting their case.

The 59-year-old Maxwell has been charged with recruiting and grooming girls for illegal sex acts with Epstein.

She faces up to 70 years in prison if she is convicted of all six counts against her.

She has denied the charges, and her lawyers indicated that they planned to present a defence when the trial resumes.

The testimony from Ms Farmer was the prosecutors' last chance to present evidence of what they say shows how Maxwell helped Epstein draw in vulnerable girls.

For the defence, Ms Farmer's testimony offered another opportunity to try to distance Maxwell from Epstein's alleged acts in the hope of convincing jurors that she is being tried as a proxy for Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Ms Farmer said she first met Epstein in 1995 when he paid for her to fly from Arizona, where she attended high school, to New York City, where her older sister Maria worked for him.

Ms Farmer said she and Epstein spoke on the phone two or three times after the visit.

Then, in 1996, he flew her to his ranch in New Mexico, where she first met Maxwell.

At one point, she testified, Maxwell instructed her on how to give Epstein a foot massage. She did so, she testified, despite feeling uncomfortable.

"I did not want to be touching his feet," she said.

NYTIMES