'I Will Not Stop Fighting': Jeffrey Epstein's Victims Speak About Abuse In Court

Dozens of women crowded the Manhattan federal courthouse where prosecutors will move to dismiss the case against Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday, women who recalled traumatizing stories of adolescent abuse at the now-deceased financier's hands. Epstein's jailhouse suicide earlier this month precluded the possibility that his innumerable victims would be able to confront him in court, but prosecutors — and attorneys for the women he allegedly trafficked — pledged that they would get justice nonetheless.

"It took me a long time to come forward,” said Chauntae Davies, who identified herself as one of Epstein's underage recruits, according to the Washington Post. Davies reportedly attested to her repeated rape during the years she gave Epstein massages. “Every public humiliation that I endured, I have suffered and he has won," she said, according to the Post. Regardless, she continued, "I have found my voice now. I will not stop fighting."

Courtney Wild says she was a 14-year-old in braces when she met Epstein in 2002, and that she continued to work within his alleged sex ring until she was 21 years old. Wild has previously stated that the money manager gave her instructions to bring in girls "as young as [she] could get them," and as many of them as she could find. In court on Tuesday, she reportedly called Epstein a "coward" who had "robbed [her] and all of the other victims" of the chance to finally face him. "I feel very angry, sad," she said, according to the Post. "And justice has never been served in this case."

Before August 10th, Epstein had been slated to stand trial on federal sex trafficking charges, with prosecutors accusing him of enlisting "dozens of girls," some as young as 14, into a sexual pyramid scheme between at least 2002 and 2005. Epstein's network of recruiters allegedly lured his marks by promising them hundreds of dollars in cash to massage the financier. The massages themselves were wildly inappropriate in nature, and allegedly escalated to rape on more than a few occasions, but Epstein's reported crimes did not stop there: He is said to have lent out the girls he ensnared to his powerful friends, sometimes as an apparent means of getting dirt on his peers; forced the girls and young women into green card marriages with one another; and smuggled them into and out of the country, all for the purposes of satiating his sexual appetite. And despite law enforcement's apparent knowledge of his rumored behavior (Florida's FBI field office investigated him in 2006, a case that ended in a sweetheart deal that may have allowed Epstein to keep up his habitual abuse, even during his light jail sentence), he seems to have gotten away with it for years. But even after the FBI finally arrested him, he still managed to swerve justice, tying up his vast fortune in a complicated trust two days before hanging himself inside the cell where he was waiting trial.

Although the charges against Epstein are widely expected to be dropped by end of day, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, took the unusual step of bringing both the prosecution and defense teams to court, where they'd hear from as many of Epstein's alleged victims as wanted to speak. Due to the "stunning turn of events," he reportedly said, he believes "it is the court's responsibility and in its purview that the victims in the case are dealt with dignity and with humanity." According to NBC, roughly 30 women were expected to address the court, some in person, some using pseudonyms, and some through statements read by their attorneys. One described the sex offender's approach of his victims as "strategic" — many of those who've spoken publicly about their experiences attest to precarious home lives, and financial instability, both factors Epstein is said to have sought in recruits — and another spoke to "the different circumstances as to why we stayed," nodding to "the analogy where the frog is in the pot and the heat goes up over time."

"I cannot say that I am pleased he committed suicide, but I am at peace knowing that he will not be able to hurt anyone else," another woman said in a statement, according to NBC. "I do not want the narrative to be 'those poor girls.' ... I want some sort of closure for those of us who will relive those horrible moments where we were assaulted, abused, and taken advantage of by Epstein."

NBC reports that the prosecution does not plan to drop the larger case, even if Epstein's death means he can no longer stand trial. Instead, they may pursue the conspiracy portion of the sex trafficking charges of Epstein, one of the prosecutors reportedly saying at Tuesday's hearing: "The investigation into those matters has been ongoing, is ongoing, and will continue." And on that score, there are a number of likely candidates: Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who allegedly functioned as Epstein's madam, both procuring and grooming his marks, and potentially abusing some of the girls herself (claims Maxwell has characterized as lies); Britain's Prince Andrew, who has denied any knowledge of the behavior described in Epstein's indictment, but whom many people have reportedly seen engaging in the debauchery directly; and other associates and employees who, some victims have already alleged, helped sustain the system that allowed his abuse to thrive. According to the Telegraph, the FBI will likely comb through Prince Andrew's email exchanges with Epstein, after seizing the wealth manager's computers during a raid of his private "Pedophile Island."

"Please, please, finish what you started,” Sara Ransome, another of Epstein's alleged victims, reportedly said Tuesday. "We all know he did not act alone." Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has long been vocal about her time as one of the financier's alleged "sex slaves," echoed that sentiment: "Jeffrey Epstein is no longer alive, but this is not about how he died. It’s about how he lived. The reckoning must not end. It must continue. He did not act alone."