Jeffrey Epstein accuser reflects on being a sex trafficking victim — and recruiting other girls: "The guilt will never go away"
Haley Robson said she spent two years in Jeffrey Epstein's world of alleged sex trafficking. She first met Epstein in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old high schooler in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was during this time she said she was recruited by a classmate.
"I was told the more you do, the more you make," Robson told CBS News' Mola Lenghi. "I was told it would be possibly in your bra and underwear, but it would just be a massage."
Desperate to leave behind childhood trauma, Robson agreed to go to Epstein's Palm Beach estate.
She said the massage turned into something more when Epstein masturbated and fondled her. When Epstein tried to take it further, she said she refused and he then offered to pay her $200 for every girl she brought to him.
Robson said she did not realize at the time the damage that Epstein was doing to her.
"I did not understand that I was being sexually abused. I didn't understand how to really classify that. Is it sexual assault? Is it rape? Is it molestation? I am 16," she said.
Robson said she will never forget when she saw a girl come out of the bathroom with Epstein, both were in towels.
"She was just very closed off, like holding herself like this and walking out of the room with her head down and I know that look. It was probably one of the only images besides the actual abuse that I have flashbacks... I'll never forget it," Robson said.
"It's difficult to get out. And you may not realize how deep you're in," said Andrea Powell, the founder of Karana Rising, a support group for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.
She says most sex trafficking victims are subjected to a complicated cocktail of reward and abuse.
"If you break it down, traffickers have three strategies and one is, I can be your daddy, I can be your protector. The other is, I can be your lover. I can be your boyfriend, your partner and the other, I can make your life better. I can fulfill your dream. And Epstein was able to kind of combine all of that," said Powell.
"I mean, take away the shiny toys, take away the money, take away the fancy names, human trafficking, sex trafficking at its core, is about exploiting somebody's vulnerabilities," Powell added.
Robson says she went on to recruit eight other girls and was told to recruit younger girls. She said she brought people she hung out with and thought at the time she was helping them.
"When I was 16, I felt like, 'Hey, you know, I made money like, do you guys want to make money,'" Robson said,
Robson has been working with therapist Randee Kogan for the last two years. Kogan said there was a lot of work that had to be done with Robson so she could forgive "herself for making decisions that she did not have any choice in making."
While Robson says she never met Ghislaine Maxwell and is not part of the government's case against Maxwell, she has been compared to her.
"She used her gender to ultimately build trust with underage girls and it's not like she's 16 and doesn't know any better, she's an adult," said Robson.
"Where is the line between recruiting while still being victimized and an actual criminal accomplice?" Lenghi asked.
"The line is can you walk away? Can you get out? And I don't just mean physically, I mean, psychologically," Powell responded.
Maxwell denies knowing anything about Epstein's alleged sex abuse ring. She has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges against her.
Robson remembers she was showering when the reality of everything she experienced hit her.
"I was sitting in the shower just scrubbing my skin. Scrubbing it. Because I just felt so dirty," she said.
But some stains don't wash away and she now doesn't trust people and is extra protective of her daughter — wanting to protect her better than she protected her friends.
"The guilt will never go away. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about the other girls," said Robson.
