Teenage Paris Hilton ‘perfect for Epstein’
Maxwell’s ‘glee when she saw heiress at party’
GHISLAINE Maxwell thought a teenage Paris Hilton would be ‘perfect’ for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, a former friend of the British socialite claims.
Society journalist Christopher Mason said that Maxwell wanted an introduction to the hotel heiress after their paths crossed at a New York party.
Maxwell, Mr Mason claims in a new documentary, stopped in her tracks when she saw Miss Hilton, who shot to fame thanks to a leaked sex tape but used her party girl image to build up successful business ventures.
Mr Mason said: ‘People were puzzled by the relationship between Ghislaine and Jeffrey because the rumours were Ghislaine was scouring New York, finding younger girls to go on dates with Jeffrey.’
Mr Mason, a British journalist based in New York who has known Maxwell since the 1980s, did not give a date for the encounter he recounted for Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, which is due to air in the US this weekend and in the UK later this month.
He said: ‘A friend of mine was at a party and Ghislaine said: “Oh my God, who is that?” and was looking at this pretty, younger teenage girl.
‘She said: “Do you know her?” My friend said: “Yeah, she’s called Paris Hilton” and Ghislaine said: “Ooh she’d be perfect for Jeffrey. Can you introduce us?”’
It is thought the encounter – which did not result in Miss Hilton becoming friends with Epstein – took place some time around 2000, the same year she and Maxwell were photographed at a fashion show with Donald Trump.
Miss Hilton signed up to the future president’s modelling agency, T Management, and began her ascent to celebrity at around the same time. At that point she would have been 19 and on the cusp of becoming a star, going on to be named ‘New York’s leading It Girl’, in 2001.
Now 39, Miss Hilton has had her own reality TV show, fashion line and perfume, which alone has brought in more than £2billion in revenue. She is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of the hotel chain.
Maxwell, 58, is accused of being Epstein’s chief recruiter and procuring teenage girls for his sex trafficking operation. She met Epstein in the early 1990s when she moved to New York after the death of her father, the disgraced newspaper baron Robert Maxwell, and later introduced him to Prince Andrew.
Mr Mason said that he once ran into Maxwell and the Duke of York walking up Madison Avenue in Manhattan. He added: ‘She introduced me to him. He told me he was staying at Jeffrey’s townhouse.
‘That fascinated me. It seems like a perfect instance of the kind of people Jeffrey was hanging out with.’ Numerous victims of Epstein, who killed himself in jail last year while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, have said Maxwell played a role in their abuse.
Chauntaue Davies, who flew with Bill Clinton on Epstein’s jet on a trip to Africa, criticised Maxwell for her alleged role in the operation. In tears she tells the documentary, due to air on the Crime+Investigation satellite channel: ‘The only thing I would ask is why?
‘As a woman and as a sister why could you allow this to happen? Some of these girls were 14 years old, it’s disgusting.
‘Being a woman and being betrayed by another woman so deeply, there’s an element of cruelty. Was she more cruel than he was? I don’t know.’
Maxwell, who was arrested by the FBI last month, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of abuse, trafficking and perjury. She faces a possible 35-year prison sentence if found guilty.
‘Oh my God, who is that?’