A Three Part Series
By: Sensible Sue
She tells the story as though it were a masterclass in subtlety, because that’s exactly what it was: a masterclass in psychological manipulation, grooming, and coercive conditioning. Lisa Phillips wasn’t kidnapped or ambushed in some back alley. No dramatic shackles. What happened to her looked, for a long time, like mentorship, opportunity, glamour, the kind of fast-track every young model dreams of. Until one day she realized she was living inside someone else’s script.
That script? Crafted meticulously by Jeffrey Epstein, his associates, and a vast network built on exploitation, reward-based control, trauma bonding, and systemic silence. Epstein didn’t just exploit her; he built a mirror in which she saw her future, and convinced her that it was his kindness that made her shine.
When Lisa first met Epstein, she was 21, on a modeling shoot in the British Virgin Islands. A fellow model mentioned she had a friend who owned an island, and Lisa; ambitious, naive, hopeful, accepted the invitation. That day, Epstein picked her up by boat. She walked into his world expecting glamour; she walked out with confusion. She and a friend had dinner under the guise of light conversation, until Epstein made his offer: “Do you want to meet a prince?” And that, in Lisa’s memory, was the threshold.
He charmed her, really charmed her. He asked questions about her goals, her dreams, what she wanted from life. She says she had never felt seen in that way. He knew how to make her feel special. That felt like validation then. It felt like mentorship. He told her she was remarkable, that she had power. She believed him.
That first night, things shifted. A woman told her Epstein wanted a massage. Lisa admitted she didn’t even know how to give one. But the woman said, “We kind of have to.” So she went with her friend. She entered a room. Epstein lay there, naked, on a massage table. She was uncomfortable. She didn’t know what was coming. And then he assaulted her. What had been painted as a friendly, professional massage turned into sexual abuse. Her friend stayed calm. Lisa understood, in that twisted, unspoken way, that this was “part of the world” she was now in.
When she returned to New York, shame and confusion followed her. She tried to suppress what happened. She started partying, using drugs, and drinking. “I just wanted to drown that shame,” she later said. Epstein’s assistants reached out relentlessly. He promised to help her modeling career. And he did by introducing her to talent agencies; and backing her as she climbed. That, Lisa says, is how grooming masks itself in opportunity: the predator becomes the benefactor, and the victim begins to conflate his exploitation with her own advancement.
But this was not random. The manipulation followed a blueprint. Epstein wove validation and prestige into his control. He made her feel chosen, elevated. Every favor he granted carried its own momentum, pulling her deeper. She believed she was privileged, not trapped. By the time the exploitation began in earnest, she already believed she belonged.
Next week in Part II, we go behind the scenes of Epstein’s control machine — the repeated visits, the manipulated confines of “business” meetings, and how a woman who once dreamed of modeling came to bring her friends into his orbit, believing it was just part of the deal.