ONE of the victims of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his sick sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell has revealed the “sex abuse factory” that was his Caribbean home.
In new BBC show House of Maxwell Juliette Bryant speaks for the first time about how she was tricked onto his island retreat and sexually assaulted by the tycoon.
In the three-part documentary, which starts on Monday, she explains how she felt trapped by the late Epstein and Ghislaine on Little St James Island, near Puerto Rico.
They were both close friends of Prince Andrew, who this month settled out of court with Virginia Giuffre, who accused the royal of sexually assaulting her, when she was just 17, after being introduced through Ghislaine and Epstein.
South African Juliette is seen in the doc saying: “I was being ordered to his bedroom at least three times a day. By that point there were even more girls. In that time I saw at least 60 girls coming and going, at least.
“I was 20 when I was taken there, so I was lucky, I wasn’t as young as some of the other girls. It was just like a factory, he was running a machine and Ghislaine Maxwell was the one operating it.
“People ask why I went back. No one disobeyed Epstein. Before I was sent home he took me to his office and he told me a woman had accused him of rape and he planted drugs in her apartment and had her sent to prison.
“Then he said he had my family’s name on a list, so I just did as I was told because I was petrified of him, of who he was.
“I knew that crossing him would be a very, very bad idea.”
Ghislaine is now facing up to 40 years behind bars for sex trafficking for Epstein, whom she initially started dating in the Nineties.
Then she became his go-to fixer to satisfy his hunger for young girls. But he was arrested in July 2019 and killed himself in his cell a few weeks later, as he awaited trial.
Juliette said: “Ghislaine was running the girls and she would tell us when we had to go to his bedroom. You couldn’t say no, there was just no option.
“You didn’t want to make them angry, it would have been very scary making them angry. No one ever tried to stand up against them.
“His bedroom was pitch dark and ice cold. I just checked out of my body and just let him do what he wanted because I didn’t know what else to do.
“I tried to escape this room in my mind. I just tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. Things happened there that scared me so deeply I can’t even talk about them.
“He fed off the terror, there was something about the energy of a girl being scared that he liked.
“The little chalet I was made to stay in when I first got there had this very weird artwork on the wall. It was a naked girl and there was a big walrus, it looked like the walrus was trying to rape her.
“It was a very disturbing picture. I’ve never seen a picture like that. He had a lot of weird stuff around his house, there were pictures of naked girls everywhere, and there was a lot of naked pictures of Ghislaine around too.”
The documentary looks at Ghislaine’s family, starting with media tycoon Robert, who died under mysterious circumstances after falling off his luxury yacht in 1991.
It suggests that after his demise she increasingly turned to Epstein, who she’d met during frequent trips to New York to help with the American branch of her father’s business empire.
Ghislaine was running the girls and she would tell us when we had to go to his bedroom. You couldn’t say no, there was just no option. You didn’t want to make them angry, it would have been very scary making them angry. No one ever tried to stand up against them.
Juliette said: “When I first met Ghislaine I was told she was Epstein’s girlfriend. But the thing is I never saw them hold hands or kiss once, or even give each other a hug, to be honest.
“I never saw them come that close, so it definitely wasn’t a romantic relationship.”
Ghislaine became utterly beholden to him and helped him lure young girls to his homes with the promise of money or help with their careers.
Juliette recalled: “I was just a young girl with hopes and dreams, and I thought I could really make something of my life. So I started modelling, I thought I could, you know, try.
“One day this beautiful American model, Naja Hill, approached me and asked me if I was a model. I told her that I’d just started modelling and then she said her friend, who owned Victoria’s Secret was here and did I want to meet him because he could help with my modelling career.
“So I was like: ‘Oh my god, all my dreams are coming true’, I just couldn’t believe it. What an opportunity. So we went to show Jeffrey my portfolio.
“I walked into the hotel room, sat opposite him, I gave him my modelling book and he looked through it. He was like: ‘Wow, you have the most amazing figure I have ever seen in my life’.
“Then he said: “Right, we definitely want to bring you over from South Africa to New York’. They said that they’d paid for my ticket and get me a visa. I thought it was going to be the most amazing opportunity of my life.
“But then his office phoned and said: ‘Pack your bag, we’re going to the Caribbean’. I assumed it was for a photo shoot. So I said immediately, yes.
“His island was the most beautiful place you’d seen, ever. The sea there is absolutely exquisite, the turquoise sea.”
When I first met Ghislaine I was told she was Epstein’s girlfriend. But the thing is I never saw them hold hands or kiss once, or even give each other a hug, to be honest.
But things quickly turned ugly when other girls started to arrive on the island — and she realised the true purpose of their invitation.
Juliette added: “Jeffrey really liked watching movies and the next day another girl was brought it. We were watching a movie and this other girl was there and she started performing a sex act on him while I was sitting next to him.
“I was absolutely petrified because I was so young and I’d never seen anything like that. So I ran out of the room and I was crying, I just didn’t know what to do. There was no hope of getting away.
“You know, I was in a foreign country without a cell phone, money or means of communication. I realised then I was completely trapped and there was nothing I could do.”
She added: “I never felt OK again after that. Everything just fell to pieces. It’s very hard to understand. I’m still trying to piece it all together.
“I wanted to just be quiet and live my life and forget about it all but then I can’t forget about it. I’m tired of feeling ashamed, I want to speak for the people who can’t talk anymore.”
Speaking of the guilty verdict on Ghislaine’s sex trafficking charges she said: “I never thought it would happen. These people have got away with what they’ve got away with for many years.
You’ve got to keep them away so they can’t harm other people. People are waking up to the truth.”
Prince Andrew has always strongly denied all allegations of misconduct made against him.
