Grooming is no longer a word you should use in your budget or financial affidavit for litigation. It is associated with snagging the attention of victims and preparing them for servitude. It is taking away modesty and boundaries that keep children and young women safe. Grooming means to normalize unwanted sexual experiences, including pornography and sexual assault. It is putting children in a position where they must not resist and then they lose inhibitions and the internal call to resist and leave. This is how sex traffickers succeed. Grooming includes desensitizing the child to what is happening, giving it a name that makes it seem acceptable and not an offense that should be reported.

Grooming can include turning children into predators, rewarding them for engaging and being aggressive towards other children. Sometimes children become the recruiters, as is the case with Epstein’s stable of victims.

The seasoned woman attached to Jeffrey Epstein is reported as having fallen off the social scene in New York but what she did to girls should be on our radar and in our minds from now on. We not only need to be on the lookout for those who sexually exploit and abuse children but also those who win them over and groom them for sex acts and slavery. [listen in news reports for titles to books ordered by Epstein]

That is the role Ms. Maxwell appears to have served, at least one of them. Groomer of young girls. The stories about Epstein and Maxwell are tough to stomach, but salacious enough given celebrity status with homes around the globe that media will continue expanding on the details. It’s time.

I believe justice can still be served for the young women reeled in, groomed and exploited by the accomplice, a polished and privileged woman who charmed everyone in her social circles. I believe in not giving up.

I’m proud of my hometown paper for being the driver in the exposure of this sex trafficking enterprise dominated by hedge fund mogul Jeffrey Epstein and I’m grateful to Julie K. Brown for not letting go. The Miami Herald published this scathing story about the leniency given to Epstein despite the number of girls and substantial and overwhelming evidence.

This is going to be a deep dive for media, as seen here on Fox News, and for child sex trafficking authorities for quite some time, but what I hope for you is that you become empowered to speak up and do more in your community to help vulnerable children and teens stay safe and confident enough to avoid those who groom children for the perpetrators of sexual abuse.

Go here for the Timeline of sexual abuse history and prosecution of Epstein according to Fox News.

Next? Be offended at how easy it is for some to avoid serious punishment for harming children. “We were little girls.” This part is easy: get involved.

The harder part is staying with the case and pushing through the politics when people of influence are able “change minds” of prosecutors or judges and circumvent justice for their victims. This is a major problem for society as this happens often, more often than you would like to think.

Thank you to all who are interested in getting out in front of child exploitation and in supporting family stability. The girls talk about how vulnerable they were and reporters talk about family dysfunction as a major factor in making these vulnerable to being tricked and groomed into becoming a part of this world.

We can do better. Visit GaCares.org to learn more about commercialized sexual exploitation of our youth. Be aware of people who blend in but who may be the one creating the most risk.

Keep in mind also that there are other ways children are trafficked and exploited; financial gain is not only derived from sexual abuse when children can be held hostage and silenced. Any time children can be used as commodities by hedge fund owners and their lawyers, we should step in.

What are others saying about his lair in the Virgin Islands?

‘It’s our dark corner’: Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Pedophile Island’ no secret on St. Thomas

Based on my experience in witnessing how children were used illegally to increase profits in the Virgin Islands, on St. Thomas and with the help of the former governor investigated for misconduct and ousted, I believe there is more to this part of Epstein’s network and story. Were other hedge fund owners and other women involved? It’s worth a closer look. As the headline says, it’s a “dark corner.”

Share cases involving exploitation of youth where the predators are known to the children by using the contact form above.

Deb Beacham