By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters), – The sex abuse trial of Ghislaine Maxwell in Manhattan Federal Court began this week. The British socialite, Ghislaine Maxwell was accused of grooming teenager girls to abuse Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell pleaded not guilty.

These are the five most important moments of week one of the trial.

Lara Pomerantz, the prosecutor, described Maxwell as a predator that “preyed upon vulnerable young girls and manipulated them before serving them up for sexual abuse.”

Bobbi Sternheim, defense attorney countered that Maxwell is being made a scapegoat since Epstein has passed away. Sternheim explained that the charges against GhislaineMaxwell relate to things Jeffrey Epstein did. But she’s not Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawrence Visoski (Epstein’s personal long-time pilot) testified that Prince Andrew of Great Britain and the former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, flew multiple times on Epstein’s plane. Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew were not charged with criminal wrongdoing.

Jane was the first of the four Maxwell accused to give evidence. She cried as she recalled the abuse she suffered at the hands of Epstein, when she was just 14 in the late-1990s. Maxwell taught her Epstein how to massage and she sometimes took part in their sexual encounters.

Jane says, “I was scared and felt gross. And I felt ashamed.” You don’t understand what is happening when you are 14 years old.

Juan Alessi (the long-serving house manager of Epstein’s Palm Beach estate) recalled picking up the sex toys and hiding them in Maxwell’s toilet. According to him, a detailed booklet was handed to him with instructions that urged him not keep Maxwell and Epstein’s whereabouts a secret.

Alessi stated, “I was meant to be blind and deaf,”