Ghislaine Maxwell asked ‘room full of underage girls’ to dance for Jeffrey Epstein

Former socialite claims she discovered his abuse ‘when it was announced in the papers’

Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly asked a “room of underage girls” to dance for Jeffrey Epstein, as the British former socialite claims that she first found out about his abuse in the media.

Ms Maxwell, 58, was charged last summer with six counts of recruiting and grooming girls and young women to be sexually abused by both her and Epstein, her former business partner and boyfriend.

On Wednesday, 112 legal documents totalling thousands of pages were made public in the US, including new allegations about Ms Maxwell’s relationship with Epstein.

The documents included redacted witness testimony accusing Ms Maxwell of preying on underage girls and forcing them to perform sexual favours for Epstein’s gratification.

“Maxwell direct a room full of underage girls to kiss, dance, and touch one another in a sexual way for defendant and Epstein to watch,” the statement said.

A separate witness claimed that Ms Maxwell recruited her from a school campus to have sex with Epstein, by initially informing her that she would be hired as a personal assistant.

While another released document alleges that “ample evidence in this case establishes that not only did Defendant [Maxwell] recruit underage girls for massage and sexual activities with Epstein, but that she participated in calling the girls; getting other people to bring girls; talking to the girls; taking massages from and leaving messages about the girls; and scheduling the girls to come over”.

The files also revealed that Ms Maxwell claimed in a 2016 deposition that she learned about Epstein’s abuse through the media, saying she heard about it “like everybody else, like the rest of the world, when it was announced in the papers”.

When she was asked if she attempted to find out if the allegations about Epstein were true, Ms Maxwell was prevented from speaking by her attorney.

The former socialite stopped working with Epstein, because she “ceased to be happy in the job and I ceased to be happy spending time with Mr Epstein”, according to another document released on Wednesday.

When asked to elaborate, Ms Maxwell said that he “became more difficult to work with” and added that it was “just general. Just doesn’t work”.

Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a Manhattan federal prison in August 2019 as he awaited a sex-trafficking trial.

Ms Maxwell is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn following her arrest on 2 July 2020 and is awaiting trial.