Another woman has launched a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, claiming she was trafficked by the late pedophile when she was 17 and that he cast her aside after repeatedly raping her for two years.
At a press conference on Thursday, Teala Davies shared a photograph of herself with Epstein that was taken on board a helicopter which showed the pair laughing as they made their way to his private Caribbean island.
It is not the first time she has shared her story. Earlier this year, at a hearing for Epstein’s victims in a New York court, she was among women who said he had abused her.
Her lawsuit against the pedophile brings the total number of claims against it to 16.
It describes how he lured her into his world with the promise of funding her education and helping her achieve her dream of becoming a translator by moving her to Spain.
She said they met at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles while Epstein was visiting the city.
Davies says in the suit that she was introduced to the late financier by her sister, who she says was also being abused by him.
Teala Davies is pictured with Jeffrey Epstein in a helicopter when she was just 17. She filed a lawsuit against him on Thursday
Davies is pictured with her lawyer Gloria Allred at a press conference to announce the lawsuit
After their first meeting, ‘Epstein lay on a bed in his spacious hotel suite, fully clothed. He asked Teala’s sister to massage his feet, then encouraged Teala to join her.
‘Afterwards, Epstein took them shopping, and insisted on buying several items for Teala,’ the lawsuit claims.
After the first trip, they kept in touch via phone. He steered their conversations towards her career goals and she told him she wanted to become a translator.
‘Soon after, Epstein helped her to obtain a letter of recommendation from her high school counselor and helped her get accepted to study at the University of Madrid,’ her attorneys write.
She was due to go to Madrid to start studying when the sexual abuse began, she said.
She and her sister were flown to Zorro Ranch, Epstein’s sprawling New Mexico ranch, where she says she met Ghislaine Maxwell and Sarah Kellen. Kellen worked for him and Maxwell was his former girlfriend turned rumored madam.
Maxwell took her horseriding, she said, and Kellen took her swimming.
After their swim, she and Kellen went into a massage room with Epstein at his request. She described Kellen massaging him and then, without warning, Epstein putting his hands inside her swimsuit to ‘fondle her genitals.’
She said she began to cry, but that he ‘continued to grope her’ and masturbate.
‘In one instance, Epstein had Teala spend time with a well-known Hollywood producer, who then demanded and attempted to engage in abusive sexual behavior…. Teala barely escaped
The woman claims she then endured another two years of abuse which escalated to rape and repeated sexual assault because she was afraid she would have nothing if she left him.
She says he ‘he raped and sexually assaulted’ her in ‘a variety of places and setting including his homes in New York, New Mexico, Florida, the Virgin Islands, and France.’
On one occasion, she said, he ‘stuck his hand in her pants unexpectedly’ in the dining room of his Manhattan home. On another occasion, she says he entered her room while she slept to rape her.
Over the next two years, she said she lived in his ‘orbit’ and was treated like his ‘sexual toy’.
He ‘offered her’ to his friends, she said, including an unnamed Hollywood producer
‘In one instance, Epstein had Teala spend time with a well-known Hollywood producer, who then demanded and attempted to engage in abusive sexual behavior.
Davies was joined at the press conference by her attorney, Gloria Allred. They are suing for unspecified damages
‘Teala barely escaped,’ she said.
In 2004, she says she confided in him that she had developed bulimia.
‘Literally within hours of Teala anxiously confessing to Epstein that she did not know why, but had a compulsive need to binge and purge, he threw her out.
‘He instructed her to pack up her belongings and arranged for her to be flown to Arizona,’ she said.
Now, she is a mother-of-three but says Epstein’s abuse has ‘ruined her life.’
Davies fought tears at the press conference as she described being targeted by Epstein when she was underage.
‘I was only 17. I was the perfect victim. I was on my own and I needed help. Jefferey Epstein preyed upon me.
‘I was only 17. I was the perfect victim. I was on my own and I needed help. Jefferey Epstein preyed upon me.
‘He put me in a vulnerable and dependent situation, and took advantage of me. I was only 17 years old. I was a little girl. It took me a long time to break free from his mind control and abuse,’ she said.
The photograph shows her smiling with Epstein as they fly over the US Virgin Islands.
She did not yet know, she said, what he had in store for her.
‘I still have flashbacks, it still hurts and like I said, I am still scared. He has disabled their ability to receive intimacy, love, for some he has disabled their ability to trust.
‘Jeffrey Epstein will never serve the time he needed to serve.
‘Time that he could have used to reflect, realized and regret what he has done to so many innocent young girls.
‘His actions still affect and haunt his victims to this day and beyond this day,’ she said.
She is suing for battery, assault and intentional affliction of emotional distress but did not go into details of the alleged crimes at the press conference.
Other lawyers have suggested that dozens more women may come forward yet.
‘My law firm literally gets a half-dozen calls a day from women,’ attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is representing some of the victims, said.
Epstein had an estimated $577million when he died. It was left to his brother.