Pornographic photos of a woman lured into NXIVM sex cult as a teenager have left jurors disgusted and shocked after the images were viewed on Thursday.
There were 18 photos shown to jurors, said to be from 2005 and of a now-grown woman who was a ‘sex slave’ known as Camilla.
Camilla was 15 at the time the photos were taken.
A female FBI agent flipped through a binder and showed jurors the photos, page by page. She did not show the photos to the rest of the courtroom.
A female FBI agent showed 18 photos said to be from 2005 and said to show a ‘sex slave’ known as Camilla. Camilla was 15 at the time of the photos and a virgin when she initially met cult leader, Keith Raniere.
Reactions were mixed – some jurors sat without much of a reaction, while others grimaced and lingered over the pictures, the New York Daily News reports.
Keith Raniere, the leader of the cult, is said to have furiously scribbled notes as jurors viewed the photos. He passed the notes to his lawyers.
Keith Raniere, the leader of the cult, is said to have furiously scribbled notes as jurors viewed the photos. He passed the notes to his lawyers
Twisted text messages exchanged between NXIVM ‘grand master’ Keith Raniere and the underage ‘sex slave’ at the center of the charges against him were laid bare in the Brooklyn Federal Court, last week.
The twisted exchanges revealed the level of control Raniere had over his subject, prosecutors say, as she was forced to send him photographs of her crotch on command and even recruit virgins to join his alleged cult in Upstate New York.
Addressing what previous witnesses had already told the courtroom, the texts also showed that the girl was just 15 when she, and her two older sisters, first came into contact with Raniere and his sect in 2005. She was also a virgin.
‘My lineage is not supposed to end with my death,’ Raniere said when chastising Camila for sleeping with someone else. He had told the teen that he was transferring knowledge and ‘energy’ to her, but couldn’t anymore, according to VICE.
‘I had no idea this successor thing even existed,’ Camila responded in the 2014 exchange.
Twisted text messages exchanged between NXIVM ‘grand master’ Keith Raniere and the underage ‘sex slave’ at the center of the charges against him were laid bare in the Brooklyn Federal Court, last week
‘I feel like your puppet,’ the woman messaged Raniere in November 2014, some nine years into their relationship.
A number of days later, Raniere responded, telling the then 24-year-old ‘I need a vow of absolute obedience. I expect you to text me this vow now.’
She replied soon after, asserting that she vowed to ‘do as you say’ with ‘100% obedience’.
Later likening him to a ‘god’, Raniere responded that, ‘you should want to give your god everything.’
Raniere has pleaded not guilty to charges including racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor and conspiracy. His lawyer has argued that he never forced any women to act against their will
‘You will arouse me,’ Raniere added. ‘We will make love for my satisfaction and pleasure. You will do everything you can to provide that.’
The exchange came just months before Raniere formed his ‘master/slave’ group in early 2015, in which women were branded and asked to provide naked images and embarrassing information as ‘collateral’.
Raniere was arrested during a police raid in March 2018.
He is accused of being a sadistic conman who abused women under the guise of giving them a path to personal growth.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges including racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor and conspiracy. His lawyer has argued that he never forced any women to act against their will.
Raniere faces life in prison if convicted.