Marina Lacerda was only 14 years old when she was introduced to Jeffrey Epstein.
Born in Brazil, she came to the US when she was eight and, by the time she was a freshman in high school, was already balancing three jobs to support her family.
When she met Epstein, things were difficult at home. Her stepfather had just gone to jail for sexually abusing her between the ages of eight and 12, and her relationship with her mother was strained.
When another young girl recruited her to work for the multimillionaire, telling her she could earn $300 for a 30-minute massage, it was a no-brainer to step into the orbit of the man who knew everyone worth knowing in New York City, whom she thought might help her accomplish her dreams of being a ballerina or performing on Broadway.
And so began her four years of abuse at the hands of the serial paedophile, who preyed on her youth, economic insecurity and wide-eyed hopes for the future with tactical precision.
Referred to as ‘Minor-Victim 1’ in the 2019 indictment against the disgraced financier, the 37-year-old was crucial in securing the charges against the sex offender, months before he hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.
Now, she has accused the former Prince Andrew of ‘completely ignoring’ the demands of victims like herself, who are calling on him to travel to the US to testify on what he knew about Epstein.
‘He does not want to come back to America to answer those questions. But before, when he was friends with Jeffrey Epstein, he was coming here all the time. He was begging Jeffrey Epstein to come here. It’s crazy when you look at those emails,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Marina Lacerda,who was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, is calling on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to travel to the US to testify on what he knew about the paedophile
Epstein with two unidentified women in a photo released by the US Department of Justice
Lacerda, who was born in Brazil, was 14 years old when she was introduced to Epstein
Lacerda referred to the email exchange between Mountbatten-Windsor and the financier in September 2010, where the men discussed a gathering alongside models from Russia and Romania at Buckingham Palace.
‘Then we have a picture of him lying down on the floor with what looks like a very young girl, [she] looks like a child when you see the picture,’ Lacerda says.
‘I don’t think these people [just] knew – I think they were a part of it. That’s what I’m understanding from the emails …. these powerful men, they were very much involved as much as Jeffrey Epstein was.’
California congressman Ted Lieu confirmed last Wednesday that the woman on the floor under the former prince in the astonishing photo at Epstein’s New York mansion was a sex trafficking victim.
‘These two photos staring you in the face are evidence of a crime, and more than enough evidence to predicate an investigation against former Prince Andrew,’ he said, addressing US Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a hearing at the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC.
‘So I asked you, Attorney General Counsel, why did you shut down this investigation last July? And why have you not prosecuted former Prince Andrew?’
Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing regarding his friendship with Epstein.
Even though Lacerda gave crucial testimony to prosecutors seven years ago, September 2025 marked the first time she went public about being an underage victim of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
When asked whether taking to the parapet to recount memories of her troubled childhood is psychologically difficult, Lacerda firmly opposes the idea.
‘No, it’s definitely not re-traumatising me,’ she says confidently. ‘When I do talk about it, it’s therapeutic for me.’
Indeed, as we speak, Lacerda balances rightful fury with an admirable calm. What comes through is her unflinching focus on fighting on behalf of her ‘survivor sisters’, even if that means going to war with Bondi over her handling of the files.
Since going public, her diary has been stacked full of podcast sit-downs and television interviews with both Western and Latin American platforms, in an attempt to make as much noise about the survivors’ pursuit of justice as is humanely possible for one woman to do.
She thought the latest release of over three million Epstein files by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) would be a watershed moment for survivors, leading to closure as well as a series of investigations into perpetrators complicit in his sordid operation.
Instead, she and hundreds of other victims were left deeply frustrated by the fact that authorities only released around 50 per cent of the six million documents they have in their possession, while negligently failing to censor sensitive information about the women Epstein abused.
‘We all know they’re protecting their own,’ Lacerda says. ‘It’s very hard for us to understand that they took their time to redact and protect themselves, but not to protect us, which I thought was the main goal here.’
Andrew features a number of times in the Epstein files, including images apparently showing him crouching over an unidentified woman in what appears to be Epstein’s New York mansion
Another image showing Andrew next to the woman released by the US Department of Justice
Last week, the DOJ said that it had withdrawn several thousand documents and ‘media’ related to the disgraced financier, after lawyers complained that the lives of nearly 100 victims had been ‘turned upside down’ by sloppy redactions in the government’s latest release of records.
The exposed materials included nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
The department blamed it on ‘technical or human error’.
It came after lawyers for Epstein victims wrote to the court seeking ‘immediate judicial intervention’ because of what they described as thousands of instances when the government had failed to redact names and other personally identifying information.
Eight women who identify as Epstein victims added comments to the letter to Judge Richard M Berman. One wrote that the records’ release was ‘life-threatening’.
Another said she’d gotten death threats after 51 entries included her private banking information, forcing her to try to shut down her credit cards and accounts.
Lacerda was one of the survivors whose privacy was compromised by the latest publication of files.
‘When I caught on to it, it took a couple [of] hours for my lawyer to get on top of it. I know for some of the girls, it took a little while – almost a day – because there were so many lawyers reaching out to the DOJ and asking them to redact the names,’ she says.
‘It was just so many women.’
She continued: ‘We’re just feeling very disrespected … And I think they’re doing this to silence us, and it really doesn’t. It only challenges us to do more and to keep talking about this topic.’
Lacerda and other survivors at a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week. US Attorney General Pam Bondi testified over the Justice Department’s handling of files
Lacerda remembers how, when she was first recruited as a masseuse for Epstein, she was groomed by the paedophile ‘very slowly’.
‘And then next thing you know, he’s raping me. I would say sex, but I guess at 14, you’re not having sex, you’re getting raped.’
Before the first massage, a girl told her that they would have to take off their shirts. ‘She said to me: “Just like a bikini, just like you’d be going to the beach.” She made it seem okay, and I can’t blame her.’
Lacerda recounted the recruitment process – a ritual Epstein eventually forced most of his victims into performing to increase his pool of girls to abuse.
‘This young girl had come up to me and said: “Hey, I know what you’re going through, come with me. I have this really powerful, amazing, really cool guy. He’s a very important person in New York, and he’s a good person to know.”‘
‘She explained the details. And it seemed okay, coming from a person that was abused from the age of eight to 12 – physically raped, and then sexually abused – it just didn’t seem so bad,’ Lacerda says.
When the pair arrived at the massage for Epstein, Lacerda was totally caught off guard, however, when the financier told her to take off her bra and asked if he could touch her.
‘I said: “No, no, no, no.” And I was in complete shock.’ She was pressured in the moment, though, feeling that there was no escape, and took off her bra alongside the other girl, while Epstein masturbated.
Afterwards, the girl was furious with Lacerda, chastising her for getting upset and refusing Epstein’s orders. She told her that anyone else would have been happy to do what Epstein had asked, and that she was lucky to know the financier as a Brazilian immigrant living in Astoria with no money or resources.
Crucially, like many groomers, Epstein maintained a sinister facade of gentleness and kindness to Lacerda.
She never witnessed him being violent, and he was ‘very nice’ about her not being ready to have sex at 14. ‘He was like: “It’s gonna take some time to get her to be comfortable.”‘
‘I think because his whole thing was he likes to be challenged. And when he knew that he was going to be challenged, and there was some way to work around it, he was willing to do it. He was willing to put in the work,’ she says.
Eventually, the abuse became normalised, and Epstein used her to ‘teach’ the other girls how he wanted them to act.
‘He would use me as a doll, prompt me to say to the girls, “this is how you’re supposed to do things, this how you’re supposed to move your body”. And he would say: “This is what a good girl would do.”‘
She continued: ‘He would get upset. He would definitely tell us off. But not violent. He would never he never hit myself or any of my friends. And that’s why a lot of girls say he’s charismatic, because he is nice.
‘He’s not a terrible, mean person. He did terrible things. Don’t get me wrong.’
As a survivor of rape at the hands of both Epstein and her own stepfather, Lacerda is eager to spread awareness about the threat of grooming and sexual abuse posed not only by strangers, but by family members and close confidants, who win the trust of children in order to exploit them.
She added that Epstein liked to boast to the famous and powerful men in his circle, telling them about the ‘very pretty girls’ he was surrounded by.
Sometimes, when he was calling these prominent celebrities, he would hand the phone over to her.
‘They would say: “Hello, how are you? Are you girls having fun?”‘ she recounts, adding that Epstein would never mention she was underage. ‘Today, I look at when they were talking to us, and I think they knew exactly what we were doing there and what we were there for.’
Before long, the financier demanded that she go out and recruit other underage girls, and even instructed her to only present him with teenagers who had a student ID, to prove they were underage.
But Epstein gradually grew frustrated when Lacerda got older, and told him she couldn’t find girls young enough anymore, being almost 18-years-old herself.
‘Whenever I would bring him somebody, if they were either too dark-skinned, or they were too old, it was always a problem, basically.’
She began working in a coffee shop and earning her own money, and eventually separated from Epstein’s sphere of control.
Epstein and an unidentified woman in a photograph released by the US Department of Justice
Epstein and another unidentified woman wearing lingerie released by US authorities
This undated photo provided by the US Justice Department on December 19, 2025 shows Epstein and his jailed associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, aboard a jet
Throughout the files, there are several mentions of various New York gynecologists where Epstein sent the young girls, for checkups apparently related to sexually transmitted infections, contraceptive methods and other medical concerns.
When Lacerda trawled through the files, she saw an email mentioning one of her friends, also a survivor, corresponding with a gynecologist who facilitated her abortion.
‘If I’m not mistaken, I think that gynecologist took care of what seems to be Jeffrey Epstein’s baby,’ she says.
Emails and bank statements indicate that Epstein did not only finance the medical appointments, but also gave advice to girls about various procedures and medicine related to their gynaecological health.
One female, whose name was censored, wrote to the financier in 2014: ‘I went to my gynecologist this week, just a regular check up and she made me consider IUD….I did some research and not sure, I would prefer not to do anything, but I was wondering what is your opinion? The hormonal one, Mirena or copper one , Paraguard? [Sic]’
He replied: ‘You will not like it, very heavy period. I will be back in ny the 19th ?’
‘Am going to my gynecologist tomorrow morning for a checkup,’ another anonymous female wrote in 2009. ‘I’m at five weeks which is the earliest anyway that one can see anything. I’ll give you a call when I get back. I hope you are well and are getting good naps in during the day.’
Epstein responded saying: ‘You should make a final decision soon before nature kicks.’
There are many unsubstantiated and make-believe statements in the files, according to the DOJ, who said the tranche ‘may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production that is responsive to the Act’.
Nevertheless, the survivors aren’t dismissing the outlandish allegations as merely conspiratorial, and Lacerda wants even the most bizarre claims to be investigated with due diligence.
She was shocked to read some of the more fantastical FBI interviews with various people who contacted the bureau’s hotline, alleging they witnessed child cannibalism and human sacrifice in the presence of Epstein and other powerful figures.
One victim added her to a group chat, where a woman alleged Epstein had created some kind of laboratory to make babies.
‘It’s hard for me to understand it. And it’s not that I don’t believe them. I think it’s just too much information for me,’ she says, mindful of the difference between unsubstantiated rumours and fact.
The New York Times reported in 2019 that the disgraced financier – who was fascinated by cryonics and eugenics – confided in scientists about a scheme to seed the human race with his DNA, by impregnating women at his nearly 10,000-acre New Mexico ranch, which included a 26,700 sq ft mansion.
The financier ordered the burial of two ‘foreign girls’ near the ranch after they were strangled to death during ‘rough, fetish sex’, according to one astonishing email released in the files
The person who sent the email claimed to have been employed at Zorro Ranch (pictured), Epstein’s sprawling estate
While there is no evidence to suggest Epstein began the experiment, New Mexico state representative Andrea Romero is one of several lawmakers now calling for a state ‘truth commission’ to investigate potential sexual and medical abuses on the isolated ranch in Stanley, 40 miles south of the state capital Santa Fe.
The financier ordered the burial of two ‘foreign girls’ near the ranch after they were strangled to death during ‘rough, fetish sex’, according to one astonishing email released in the files.
The email, sent by a person claiming to have worked for Epstein, also included links purporting to show the late paedophile engaging in sex with underage girls.
Last week, it came as no surprise to Lacerda and fellow survivors – who are in a highly active group chat together – that Epstein’s jailed co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell refused to answer any questions about the sex offender during her congressional hearing.
Republican House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said that ‘as expected’, Maxwell pleaded the Fifth Amendment throughout, invoking her right to remain silent.
‘This is obviously very disappointing,’ he said. ‘We had many questions to ask about the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators.’
Her lawyer, attorney David Oscar Markus, said Maxwell was ‘prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump’.
‘Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,’ he posted on X, adding that ‘both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing.’
He noted that Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for sex trafficking, is the only person who can explain why.
But Lacerda cautioned that the disgraced socialite is the last person who can be trusted. ‘Are we supposed to believe a woman that has lied under oath?’ she told the Daily Mail.
She was part of a group of 20 survivors who penned a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, warning against ‘any attempt to grant Ghislaine Maxwell leniency, whether through sentencing relief, special treatment, or credibility afforded to her testimony,’ because it ‘would be catastrophic for survivors’.
‘Ms. Maxwell was not a peripheral figure. She was a central and indispensable architect of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise. Despite this, she has refused to meaningfully cooperate with law enforcement or provide credible, complete information about the scope of the trafficking network,’ the letter said.
If Lacerda has one message for US officials, it is to implore them to look at the survivors not as adult women, but as children.
‘I’d like to say, look at your kids, look at your sister, look at your mother. What if it was them?’
She notes how US President Donald Trump has been calling the Epstein case ‘pretty boring stuff’ and of no interest to anyone.
‘I love how he says that. Of course it’s boring, because he’s in the files, his friends are in the files. So it seems boring for him, but it’s not boring when you’re involving the whole world. The whole world is involved in this.’
