MAXWELL GUILTY
NEW YORK: British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is likely to spend the rest of her life in prison after she was found guilty on five of six counts of grooming underage girls for her one-time boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.
A 12-person jury in New York took six days to reach their unanimous verdict.
A date for the 60-year-old Maxwell’s sentencing has not been set, but she could face a maximum of 65 years behind bars for her role in what lawyer Damian Williams called “one of the worst crimes imaginable – facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children”.
The sixth count alone – sex trafficking of a minor – has a maximum sentence of 40 years.
Maxwell sipped water as Judge Alison Nathan read out the verdicts for each of the six counts. Later, when taken back to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she has been held since mid 2020, Maxwell reportedly had difficulty standing. Earlier fears that New York’s rapidly escalating Omicron outbreak would eventually affect the jury’s deliberations were not realised.
In a statement after the verdict, Mr Williams, the most powerful federal law enforcement official in Manhattan,
said the “road to justice has been far too long, but today, justice has been done”.
“I want to commend the bravery of the girls – now grown women – who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom. Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and
today’s result, possible,” Mr Williams said.
While Maxwell has always proclaimed her innocence, attention will now inevitably turn to Maxwell and Epstein’s friend Prince Andrew, and the civil suit alleging sexual abuse brought against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Ms Giuffre’s suit claims she was sexually abused by Prince Andrew on multiple occasions in 2001, when she was just 17. The alleged abuse took place at residences owned by Maxwell and Epstein, Ms Giuffre has claimed.
The Prince has vehemently rejected the accusations, with his legal team this week calling for the suit to be thrown out of court on the basis that Ms Giuffre’s primary place of residence is Australia, not the US.
On Wednesday, US District Judges Lewis Kaplan and Loretta Preska ordered that a 2009 settlement claim between Ms Giuffre and Epstein be made public next week. Legal experts believe it could
have a direct bearing on Ms Giuffre’s lawsuit.
Maxwell’s sex-trafficking charge involved the accuser known only as Carolyn, who told the jury she was 13 when she was recruited by Maxwell to give Epstein sexualised massages for money.
Maxwell was found not guilty on the second charge of enticement, which related to the accuser known as Jane.
Jane testified she was first sexually abused by Epstein in 1994 when she was 14, and that Maxwell participated in some of their encounters.
A former boyfriend of Jane’s testified that Epstein had assisted Jane’s family financially but she had to do things in exchange for the money.
Maxwell, the daughter of former British newspaper baron Robert Maxwell, did not testify but her lawyers argued she has been wrongly targeted as a scapegoat for Epstein, whose 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.