Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Ghislaine Maxwell's defence attorneys sought Wednesday to undermine a key accuser's allegation that the British socialite helped financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse the woman for years, starting when she was 14.
The trial witness, who has said she's using the pseudonym “Jane” to protect her 22-year acting career, had testified in graphic detail on Tuesday about the alleged encounters in the 1990s, portraying Maxwell as an active participant.
During a methodical cross examination, defence attorney Laura Menninger confronted the woman with FBI documents from 2019 and 2020, saying she had told the government her memory was foggy on whether Maxwell was present when Epstein molested her and on whether she ever touched her.
Other documents claimed she said that no abuse occurred during a visit to Epstein's ranch in New Mexico. That contradicted her testimony about alleged encounters with him there that she said made “my heart sink into my stomach.”
The witness denied ever changing her story. She challenged the accuracy of the documents, saying her statements were never recorded.
“This was just someone jotting down notes. A lot of these are not correct,” she said.
At another point, she responded, “I don't recall saying what's written here.”
She did not dispute other documents saying she had named several “model types” and other women she said witnessed participating in group massages with Epstein. She also confirmed telling the FBI she once flew on a private jet with Britain's Prince Andrew.
Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges that prosecutors say show that she and Epstein were “partners in crime.” The defence has countered by claiming she's being made a scapegoat for 66-year-old Epstein, who killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited his own sex trafficking trial.
On Tuesday, the accuser described numerous sexual encounters with Maxwell and Epstein that began in 1994 and continued through 1997. When recounting the first time she was abused by Epstein, she said she was “frozen in fear.”
Another time, she said she was taken to a massage room where he and Maxwell both took advantage of her. Other encounters involved sex toys or turned into oral sex “orgies” with other young women and Maxwell, she added.
On cross examination, the defence also attacked the witness' credibility by asking why she waited over 20 years to report the alleged abuse by Maxwell to law enforcement. And Maxwell's attorney asked Jane, an actor, about her television roles - a cancer patient, a car crash victim, someone with mental health issues, a prostitute - suggesting she may have applied her professional craft to her testimony.
The last one “was not my favorite role,” Jane said before pushing back on Menninger's characterizations of her work as melodramatic.
“You want to call it `melodramatic.' I prefer `dramatic,”' she said.
She later choked up when a prosecutor asked her at the conclusion of her testimony why she didn't reveal everything about her experience with Epstein in her initial meetings with prosecutors.
“Because it was too difficult - too difficult emotionally, too difficult on every level,” she said.
Two of Maxwell's siblings, Kevin and Isabel, were among the spectators in the courtroom on Wednesday. The family has insisted she's innocent.
Outside court, Kevin Maxwell told reporters it was the first time he'd seen his jailed sister in more than 500 days and thanked deputy U.S. Marshals for allowing her to briefly speak to him before they took her out of the courtroom.
“Personally, it gave me a tremendous sense of to be close to her, to be able to actually see her in the flesh,” he said.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.