Ghislaine Maxwell’s former personal assistant settles Jeffrey Epstein libel claim

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The photo was entered into evidence (US Attorney’s Office VIA REUTERS)

A former personal assistant of Ghislaine Maxwell has settled a High Court libel case after a journalist linked her to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of a teenage girl in a book.

Emmy Tayler took legal action against international publisher Harper Collins over a passage from the book Perversion Of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story, written by Julie K Brown and published in the UK in July 2021.

Ms Tayler, who worked for Maxwell between 1997 and 2001, claimed that the since-amended book falsely linked her to the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl – known as Jane Doe 1 – by the billionaire financier in 2005.

A judge previously ruled that a passage in the book linking her to “notorious paedophile” Epstein’s abuse was “clearly defamatory”, with the case set to go to trial.

But at a hearing in London on Tuesday before Mrs Justice Steyn, Mark Manley, representing Ms Tayler, said the firm had settled the claim after publishing “grotesque and defamatory allegations”.

He said: “The defendant has fully accepted that Ms Tayler was not the young woman who led Jane Doe 1 to Epstein’s bedroom, that she was not responsible for Epstein’s massage schedule, and that it was incorrect to name her as Maxwell’s assistant at that time.

“Despite her attempts to avoid litigation, Ms Tayler felt forced to issue this claim and incur substantial costs, as well as considerable emotional distress, in part because the physical book was not withdrawn, and in part because the defendant claimed the book was not defamatory of her.”

He added: “The defendant has recently offered amends which the claimant has accepted.

Jeffrey Epstein (New York State Sex Offender Registry)

“Ms Tayler is relieved that finally, albeit some two years after publication of these grotesque and defamatory allegations, that she is today proven to be entirely vindicated and she is glad that HarperCollins has unconditionally apologised.”

Ms Tayler did not attend Tuesday’s hearing, with the sum of damages not disclosed in court.

Adelaide Lopez, representing HarperCollins, said the company apologised for causing “considerable and unwarranted distress” and had agreed to pay Ms Tayler damages and legal costs.

Ms Tayler’s barristers told the court in 2022 that the book’s original text would make a reader think that she “knowingly facilitated” Epstein’s abuse of the teenage girl at his Palm Beach residence by arranging his massage schedule when his “sexual abuse pyramid scheme” was in “full swing”.

But the court heard that Ms Tayler was not employed by Maxwell in 2005 and her alleged involvement in the convicted sex offender’s massage schedule and the abuse of the girl was false.

Lawyers for HarperCollins said that distribution of the 448-page book was suspended and a corrected version later published.

In a preliminary judgment in December 2022, Mr Justice Pepperall said the meaning of the passage was defamatory and would “tend to have a substantially adverse effect” on how people treated Ms Tayler.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

His associate, British socialite Maxwell, was jailed for 20 years in the US in 2022 for luring young girls to massage rooms for him between 1994 and 2004.