BRACEBRIDGE, Ont.—A witness at the sex assault trial of Toronto Coun. Michael Thompson was questioned Thursday on why she would continue to exchange text messages with a woman she compared to Ghislaine Maxwell — the notorious enabler of U.S. sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein — after leaving the Muskoka cottage where the witness said she felt “groomed” and where Thompson allegedly sexually assaulted two other women.
The witness, a 24-year-old university student, has testified about hanging out, drinking and smoking pot with Thompson and his friend — identified in court as Tracey — and how she came to believe the older woman was interested in grooming her for sex trafficking, not becoming a career mentor, as Thompson had suggested.