One of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell‘s former victims has revealed she had to have an abortion after getting pregnant by one of the ‘countless’ men who raped her while she was being trafficked to their friends.
Elizabeth Stein spoke out about the horrifying ‘trauma’ she suffered at the hands of late billionaire Epstein and his former madam Maxwell, 60, while reading a victim impact statement at the socialite’s sentencing hearing in New York on Tuesday – when the former madam was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
In her statement, Stein recalled being ‘assaulted, raped and trafficked countless times’ during a three-year period after Epstein – who died in prison in 2019 – and Maxwell lured her into their sex trafficking ring by ‘seizing upon her vulnerability’.
She eventually got pregnant at the hands of one of the men and chose to abort the baby. Stein still remains ‘unsure’ who got her pregnant.
‘I was assaulted, raped and trafficked countless times in New York and Florida during a three year period,’ Stein’s statement – seen by DailyMail.com – reads.
‘At one point I became pregnant (by whom I am unsure) and aborted the baby. Things happened that were so traumatizing that to this day I’m unable to speak about them; I don’t even have the vocabulary to describe them.’
Elizabeth Stein, a former victim of Jeffrey Epstein, has revealed that she had to have an abortion after getting pregnant at the hands of one of the many men she was trafficked to
Stein (pictured left with fellow victim Sarah Ransome) opened up about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their friends in a victim impact statement read at the socialite’s sentencing on Tuesday
Stein recalled her years-long attempts to escape Maxwell and Epstein, having first been lured into their horrifying world when she was a senior at FIT in New York City and working as a sales associate at Henri Bendel.
It was there that she first met the socialite, who introduced her to Epstein at the Pierre Hotel the very same day they met.
‘That night in the hotel was the first of many times they sexually assaulted me,’ she revealed.
According to Stein, when she graduated from college, she desperately tried to ‘leave Epstein and Maxwell and the abuse they perpetrated against me behind as I started my professional life’ with a job at Bloomingdales.
However, she says that Maxwell ultimately tracked her down in the department store in the fall of 1995, recalling how the socialite ‘immediately began befriending me once again’.
After meeting Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, it felt like someone shut off the lights to my soul
‘She immediately began befriending me once again, asking me to go out socially,’ Stein recounted.
‘I tried to resist but eventually she wore me down and I began spending time with them again. They made me feel like they were friends, contemporaries.’
It was then that the pair whisked her away to Florida – and ‘insisted that she stay longer than planned’ which resulted in her being fired from her job at Bloomingdales.
‘Seizing on this new vulnerability, they began trafficking me to their friends. By that time, I was trapped,’ she shared, explaining that Maxwell and Epstein threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone what had happened to her.
‘In the most literal sense of the word, Epstein and Maxwell terrified me,’ she said. ‘They told me that if I told anyone, nobody would believe me and if they did, they would kill me and the people closest to me.
‘After meeting Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, it felt like someone shut off the lights to my soul.’
According to Stein, it was Maxwell, 60, who originally lured her into the trafficking ring after they met while Stein was working as a sales associate in Henri Bendel in New York City
Stein recalled how Maxwell introduced her to Epstein (seen together in 1995) at the Pierre Hotel on the same day they met, revealing: ‘That night in the hotel was the first of many times they sexually assaulted me’
Eventually, Stein says that keep the abuse a secret ‘became too much for her to handle’ and she began making desperate attempts to flee from Epstein and Maxwell, changing jobs, apartments, cities, and states in the hopes that she would finally be free of them.
‘Everywhere I went, they found me. In 1997, I moved to Philadelphia with the hopes of finally starting law school. They found me again and it was more than I could take,’ she said.
It was at this point that Stein experienced her first ‘nervous breakdown’, which landed her in hospital.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sex trafficking and abusing multiple girls with Epstein
‘I was hospitalized with a nervous breakdown. It would be the first of over two dozen hospitalizations in the decades following my involvement with Epstein and Maxwell,’ she shared.
Speaking about the lasting impact of the abuse, Stein said that the years she spent being assaulted and raped by the billionaire and his friends not only left her struggling with severe emotional issues, but also resulted in an incurable chronic pain disorder, which she will suffer from for the rest of her life.
‘In addition to my escalating mental health problems, I began to experience physical symptoms that doctors could never quite put their finger on,’ she revealed.
‘I received dozens of diagnoses but nothing ever quite fit. I could no longer even pretend to be able to hold down a job or take care of myself in any meaningful way, and I had to move home once again. Emotionally I cracked, and nobody thought I would ever get better. But I did not give up.’
Despite visiting ‘all kinds’ of experts, and undergoing treatment at several medical and psychiatric hospitals, Stein said that ‘nothing helped’ – and she ultimately chose to try and put her life back together while still suffering from her undiagnosed physical condition.
She returned to Philadelphia in 2007 and began preparing to take her LSATs when a psychiatrist suggested that she undergo Dialectical Behavioral Therapy – a type of cognitive behavioral therapy – which finally enabled her to begin ‘repairing her emotional damage’.
Stein and Ransome arrived hand-in-hand at court on Tuesday, when they both read out victim impact statements about the horrific abuse they suffered at Epstein and Maxwell’s hands
In her own statement, Ransome revealed that she tried to kill herself twice – once in 2008 (pictured) and again in 2018 – after the trauma of the abuse became too much to handle
Ransome is pictured with casts in both legs following her second suicide attempt in 2018
It was only then that she received a diagnosis for her physical ailments: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, an incurable neurological condition that causes ‘intense, relentless physical pain’.
‘I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and was primarily bedbound for over a year,’ she said.
‘CRPS is a rare neuroinflammatory disorder characterized by intense, relentless physical pain. Both CRPS and PTSD are psychophysical states in which the sympathetic nervous system is engaged and remains inappropriately hyper-aroused. There is no cure. The mind and body are interconnected.’
Stein stated that ‘the arrests of Epstein and Maxwell in 2019 and 2020 respectively helped her immensely’, revealing how they enabled her to finally open up to her loved ones and medical providers about the abuse she had suffered at their hands.
‘Twenty five years after meeting them, my experience was validated. I could finally see the possibility of closure,’ she continued.
Stein arrived at Maxwell’s sentencing hand in hand with fellow victim Sarah Ransome, who also shared her own harrowing impact statement with the court, in which she revealed she attempted suicide twice when the trauma from the abuse became too much for her to handle.
‘I was nothing more than a sex toy with a heartbeat and soul used to entertain Epstein, Maxwell and others,’ Ransome said, before sharing images of herself in a hospital bed after she tried to take her own life – one from 2008 and another from 2018 when Epstein was under investigation.
‘On one visit to [Epstein’s] island, the sexual demands, degradation and humiliation ensued me to try to escape by jumping off a cliff into shark-infested waters. I was caught by Maxwell and company moments before jumping,’ she recalled.
‘At the time, that extremely risky escape seemed more appealing than being raped one more time.’
Ransome also spoke outside of the courthouse, and said, ‘Ghislaine must die in prison. I’ve been in hell and back for the past 17 years.’