Content warning – the video and copy in this story contain graphic descriptions of sexual assault.

Jeffrey Epstein pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking this week in court.

As details of his charges emerge, the story behind how he allegedly recruited, groomed, and then sexually assaulted underage girls gets more and more disturbing.

Now a new accuser, who is not part of his ongoing trial, has come forward to share her traumatic experience of assault when she was just 15 years old.

Jennifer Araoz, 32, told NBC’s Today Show that she was first approached in 2001 by a recruiter who brought her to Epstein’s home on the Upper East Side, promising that he could help with her career, reports The Daily Beast.

It has been reported that Epstein used young women, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, and Nadia Marcinkova, to recruit potential victims.

Here is Jennifer’s story in her own words:

Araoz says that she was invited back to Epstein’s home a number of times before the assault took place. Each time she was handed an envelope with the same amount of money in it.

Araoz said Epstein showed her his massage room—where erotic paintings hung around the massage table—which he said was his favorite room in the house. He asked her to dress only in her underwear and massage him.

Soon the meetups would include more and more sexually explicit requests. She said the hedge-fund investor would make her massage his nipples or he would masturbate in front of her.

Eventually, in fall of 2002, when she had turned 15, Araoz said Epstein grabbed her during one of the massages and forced her to have sex with him.

Araoz, like many survivors of rape, did not report her assault because she felt like it was her fault – a common response from victims who have been groomed and manipulated by their abusers.

She said she suffered terrible anxiety and panic attacks in the months after the alleged rape; culminating in her dropping out of school.

“I kind of hated myself for it,” Araoz told NBC. “I was like, ‘I’m stupid, I should have known better. I’m a bad kid.’ … I basically just tried to forget about it and live my life.”

She is now a makeup artist, living in Queens.

If you have been a victim of sexual assault, you can access support and counselling HERE.

[source:dailybeast]