TOM LEONARD asks was Nadia Marcinkova abused… or an abuser?
The model who flew into the abyss: They look so innocent, but behind these new pictures from Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘paedophile island’ lie dark claims about the beautiful pilot said to be his accomplice. So, asks TOM LEONARD, was she abused… or an abuser?
A hike through the woods and a pair of friends sitting at a table in the Caribbean sun.
It all seems perfectly innocent, although the only man in the photos – surrounded as ever by attractive young women – is Jeffrey Epstein. And, as we now know, nothing to do with Epstein was ever innocent.
For the towering blonde in these newly unearthed pictures is Slovak former ‘model’ Nadia Marcinkova, now a glamorous jet pilot with her own aviation company, but once allegedly one of the billionaire paedophile’s most depraved acolytes.
Often, the teenage girls who ministered to the twisted needs of Epstein at his Palm Beach mansion found they weren’t always alone with him. Sometimes, they told police, they were joined by an Eastern European they believed to be his girlfriend. Epstein would allegedly pay the girls to have sex with Marcinkova while he watched and took photos that he later displayed around the house.
Close: Nadia Marcinkova sitting with Epstein as he worked in his dressing gown
At other times, they said, Marcinkova – then aged around 19 – would pressure them to have sex with her and the billionaire paedophile, sometimes in orgies. British accuser Sarah Ransome said she once had sex with Marcinkova and Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s high-powered lawyer, in New York, although he vehemently denies it. Epstein reportedly told some of his victims Marcinkova was his ‘sex-slave’ after he had bought her, aged 14, from her parents in Eastern Europe.
She certainly showed a slavish devotion when she visited him 67 times during the year he spent behind bars in Florida in 2008 for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Marcinkova, now 34-year-old pilot calling herself ‘Global Girl’ on social media, has once more been dragged into the Epstein scandal after the new photographs taken on his private island were revealed.
Also in the spotlight is Sarah Kellen, another of Epstein’s young female acolytes and the alleged ‘deputy’ to Ghislaine Maxwell, currently remanded in custody in a New York jail accused of recruiting girls as young as 14 for him.
Kellen and Marcinkova – both of whom have changed their names since the scandal broke – are assumed to be among the next targets of New York prosecutors who have been assured by dozens of Epstein victims that he certainly didn’t act alone in his sex crimes. US Attorney General William Barr has warned his alleged accomplices they ‘should not rest easy’.
Marcinkova, now 34-year-old pilot calling herself ‘Global Girl’ on social media, has once more been dragged into the Epstein scandal after the new photographs taken on his private island were revealed
Marcinkova long ago established herself as one of Epstein’s most devoted female followers.
‘They’re very close,’ an Epstein insider told a local newspaper when Marcinkova bombarded him with visits in his Florida prison 12 years ago. ‘She went mostly on weekends … I guess you can call her his “squeeze”.’ Prison officials said the visits were monitored and there was ‘no alone time’.
Marcinkova was certainly close to Epstein according to a witness who was there when the newly uncovered, undated photos were taken. They show Marcinkova hiking with Epstein and sitting beside him as, draped in a dressing gown, he conducts business at his estate on Little St James in the US Virgin Islands.
The insider said: ‘Nadia and Jeffrey seemed to really love each other. It was as if they had a romantic relationship.
‘They were affectionate to each other, often holding hands.’
Not merely because she towered over all the others – including the under-sized Epstein – Marcinkova always stood out as the most fascinating, and disturbing, of the financier’s alleged female accomplices, except perhaps Maxwell herself.
A hike through the woods and a pair of friends sitting at a table in the Caribbean sun. It all seems perfectly innocent, although the only man in the photos – surrounded as ever by attractive young women – is Jeffrey Epstein
For if the claims are true about how she came into his perverted orbit, they bear out allegations that Epstein was involved in an international sex trafficking ring which brought young girls from poor countries to the US under the guise of recruiting them as models.
Marcinkova, who has changed her name to Marcinko, has steadfastly refused to comment on Epstein or the claims against him.
However she insists she was a ‘victim’ of Epstein and her lawyers yesterday told the Mail: ‘Nadia wishes to express her compassion and support for her fellow survivors who also fell prey to Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory abusive behaviour.’
Any claim by her to have been a complete innocent is contradicted by many, not least US prosecutors. They named her, Kellen and two other young female Epstein associates as ‘potential co-conspirators’ who were granted immunity from prosecution for past crimes under a controversial 2007 deal that saw Epstein serve just a year in prison.
In 2010, Marcinkova and Kellen cited their Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating themselves when quizzed under oath by lawyers for alleged victims of Epstein, who killed himself in jail last year.
When asked, ‘Have you ever been made to perform sexually on Prince Andrew?’, Marcinkova replied: ‘Fifth.’ (The prince strenuously denies any wrongdoing.)
Marcinkova, who has changed her name to Marcinko, has steadfastly refused to comment on Epstein or the claims against him
How did the girl born in the former Czechoslovakia end up as a key figure in the Epstein scandal? Although her father has reportedly rejected claims that he and his wife ever ‘sold’ her to Epstein, records show she came to the US in 2000 when she would have been 14 or 15.
It is claimed that she reached New York through a model agency, MC2, that Epstein had helped set up in New York and Miami.
The agency’s bookkeeper insisted Marcinkova never actually did any modelling but was one of various girls – some as young as 13 – who lived in flats controlled by Epstein close to his home in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew’s accuser, claimed in 2014 court papers the arrangement was a cover for sex trafficking as most of the girls came from poor countries and were lured to the US by the false promise of making good money as models.
Marcinkova became a full-time member of the Epstein household, although her official function wasn’t clear. What the she certainly did do, however, was fly with Epstein – a lot.
The multi-millionaire kept a fleet of planes, the flagship being the notorious ‘Lolita Express’, a luxuriously customised Boeing 727.
One Palm Beach girl told police she was 16 when she made the first of hundreds of trips to Epstein’s mansion, breaking down in tears as she described how she often had sex with Marcinkova. Epstein would allegedly watch and ‘choreograph’ her activities. In the past decade or so, Marcinkova has disappeared from public view.
Since the 2008 case, she has obtained a pilot’s licence and she now boasts an impressive social media following under the Instagram handle ‘Fly Global Girl’.
In 2015, it was revealed that Marcinkova and Kellen were running companies from a Manhattan property owned by Epstein’s brother Mark.
It was at this 66th Street address that Marcinkova set up an aviation company, Aviloop. She says she is licensed to fly multi-engined aircraft and Gulfstream business jets as well as being an ‘aerobatic pilot’ and flight instructor.
Light-heartedly, her website claims she switched from modelling to flying because she was ‘ready for longer runways’.
Marcinkova may soon be coming down to Earth with a bump if she becomes the next Epstein associate to face her day in court.
