Accuser says Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein picked her up at summer camp when she was 14 years old and sexually abused her for 5 years

• The first accuser to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial took the stand Tuesday.

• She said Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein presented themselves as rich benefactors at a difficult time.

• She testified that Maxwell and Epstein abused her for years starting when she was 14.

The first of four accusers set to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell's child-sex-trafficking trial took the stand Tuesday afternoon, alleging in searing testimony that Jeffrey Epstein and the British socialite preyed on her beginning when she was 14 years old and groomed her for sex in his mansions in New York City; New Mexico; and Palm Beach, Florida.

The accuser, testifying under the pseudonym Jane, said she first met Epstein and Maxwell the summer after completing seventh grade while at a performing-arts summer camp in Michigan in 1994.

Her father, a composer, had died of leukemia the previous fall. The medical expenses bankrupted their family, which lost their home and were forced to live in a pool house in someone else's backyard in Palm Beach, she testified.

That summer, Jane testified, other family members pitched in to send her and her two brothers to the Interlochen Center for the Arts, located a short drive from the shore of Lake Michigan, while their mother stayed home in Palm Beach. Jane said Epstein and Maxwell approached her while she was eating ice cream with friends between music lessons at the camp.

Epstein said he was a donor to the camp, Jane said, and wanted to know what the attendees thought of it. When he learned Jane lived in Palm Beach, she said, he asked for her mother's phone number.

A few weeks later, Jane said, her mother received a call: It was Epstein, and he wanted to invite Jane and her mother over for tea.

It was the first of a series of meetings that prosecutors alleged were meant to normalize subsequent sexual abuse. Jane said she went to Epstein's homes "every week or two" for the next five years, until leaving his grasp in 1999 when she moved across the country. She cut off contact with Epstein in 2002, she testified.

She said she kept her experience a secret for years.

"I felt very ashamed, I felt disgusted, I was confused," Jane said. "And I didn't know whether it was my fault."

Testimony of 'casual' hangouts escalating to sexual abuse

Epstein had attended the summer camp himself, according to Maxwell's defense attorneys. Friends of Epstein say he was passionate about music, and he often played a piano in his mysterious temple located on one of his private islands in the US Virgin Islands.

Epstein told Jane and her mother in that first meeting that he liked to give scholarships to young, passionate musicians, Jane said. After that first meeting, she said, he sent members of his Palm Beach household staff to pick Jane up and drive her over to his home in meetings arranged by Maxwell.

Jane testified that, at first, Epstein and Maxwell had "casual" hangouts with Jane, taking her to movies, inviting her to the pool in Epstein's backyard, and having meals with her. They made her feel special, Jane said, by asking about what was going on with her life — something she said she found difficult to talk about at home since her father died. Epstein also paid for private-school tuition, Jane said.

The Palm Beach home, Jane said, was filled with paintings of naked or half-naked women, as well as "creepy-looking animals." Jane testified that Epstein and Maxwell name-dropped people like President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and the journalist Mike Wallace, giving the impression that they were connected to powerful people.

In one early meeting, Maxwell and Epstein brought her to a Victoria's Secret — a chain owned by Epstein's longtime friend and patron Leslie Wexner — to buy white panties, Jane said. She said Epstein also sometimes gave her wads of cash and told her it was for her mother.

Several adult women, including Maxwell, were also often in Epstein's Palm Beach home, sometimes spending time by the pool topless or naked, Jane testified.

"I was pretty shocked because I hadn't seen that before," Jane said.

Jane said the first time Epstein sexually abused her was after a conversation about her artistic ambitions. She recalled him saying he could use her connections to make sure she succeeded in whatever discipline she wanted — opera, theater, or modeling.

Then, Jane testified, Epstein told her to follow him from the house to the pool house in his backyard. There, Jane testified, Epstein pulled her over to a couch, pulled down his sweatpants, and stimulated himself until he climaxed on her.

"I was frozen. I'd never seen a penis before, let along anything like this," Jane said, telling the jury she was 14 years old at the time.

Jane testified that she was too afraid or fearful to talk to family members or friends about what she experienced. She continued to visit Epstein.

Soon afterward, she said, Epstein pulled her and Maxwell into his master bedroom. There, he and Maxwell took off their clothes and fondled each other while "casually giggling about it," Jane testified. She alleged on the stand that Epstein instructed her to take her top off and stimulated himself while Maxwell continued to touch him.

'It all started to seem the same after a while'

Jane testified that from there, Maxwell and Epstein trained Jane to give sexualized massages. She said the two detailed Epstein's specific preferences: hard twisting of his nipples, allowing him to stick his fingers into her genital area, aggressive use of vibrators.

Maxwell treated it all very casually, Jane testified.

"It made me feel confused," Jane said. "Because this was not normal to me."