New victim steps forward to accuse Epstein of raping her when she was 17

Accuser is seeking unspecified damages from dead sex trafficker’s estate

Another woman is claiming she was abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein while she was visiting his Manhattan townhouse in her teens.

The woman's lawsuit claims that Epstein "sexually assaulted, abused, battered and raped her" on at least two occasions at his Manhattan home in 2003. The woman was 17 at the time of the alleged attack.

The identity of the woman is not currently known, as she filed the lawsuit anonymously in Manhattan's Supreme Court on Friday.

The filing was made the day before New York's Child Victim's Act closed its "look-back" window for adults seeking justice for crimes they suffered as children. The window allowed for people who believed they were abused to sue their suspected attackers or institutions even if the statute of limitations on the crimes had expired.

The woman said in her filing that due to her encounter with Epstein, "she suffered, and continues to suffer from, extreme mental distress, humiliation, anguish, emotional and physical injuries as well as economic losses."

She seeks unspecified damages from Epstein's estate.

A week before the woman filed her lawsuit, the Epstein Victims Compensation Program paid out a total of $121m to more than 130 victims of the former financier.

Many other accusers have opted out of the fund, preferring instead to take their cases to court.

Epstein was arrested on child sex trafficking charges and later died in his cell after an apparent suicide. The financier was infamous not only for the sheer scale of his alleged crimes – most often sexually abusing young women – but also for his proximity to wealthy and powerful figures.

His former girlfriend and confidante, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, has been in jail for more than a year awaiting trial for her alleged role in Epstein’s abuses. Ms Maxwell has been described as Epstein's "pimp", as it was allegedly her job to recruit and train the teenage girls that Epstein abused.

She has repeatedly and strenuously denied any wrongdoing and insists she is being used as a scapegoat for Epstein’s crimes.

Ms Maxwell's trial will begin on 29 November. The case was originally slated to start over the summer, but evidence prosecutors introduced forced the date back to allow the defence time to review.