MAXWELL: LET ME OUT OF JAIL IN 2 YEARS
‘Deluded’ leniency plea
CHILD sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell believes she deserves to go free in just over two years.
Maxwell, 60, will be sentenced next week for trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein, and has asked US courts to ignore calls for her to get up to 30 years in jail.
However, she has been branded “delusional” and accused of thinking she is “above the law” after arguing she should serve less than three more years for her sex crimes.
Maxwell will be sentenced on June 28 for grooming young girls to be abused by her paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.
The US probation service recommended she be sentenced to between 24 and 30 years. But 60-year-old Maxwell wants that reduced to between “51 to 63 months”, and she is entitled to 22 months off for detention served before the trial.
Pleading for leniency, her lawyers say that Maxwell’s “life has been ruined”.
They suggest she fell under Epstein’s spell because of her relationship with her “narcissistic, demanding and highly controlling” father Robert Maxwell, who robbed millions from Mirror pensioners.
But one lawyer told our sister paper the Mirror: “It’s clear where Ghislaine is concerned the apple hasn’t fallen far from the narcissistic tree. To argue she should serve such a short sentence is delusional, something you would expect her father would think.
He thought he was above the law, and it seems Ghislaine inherited that trait.” She was convicted in December of five counts of sex trafficking and other crimes for recruiting teenage girls to be abused by millionaire financier Epstein.
He killed himself, aged 66, in a New York federal jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In two documents filed by her lawyers, Maxwell asks the court to take account of the “unusually harsh” conditions she was held in while awaiting trial. In April 2021, in the first photo of Maxwell after her arrest, she had a black eye.
Lawyers say her life is now in danger, claiming: “There are numerous prison inmates who would not hesitate to kill Ms Maxwell – whether for money, fame or simple ‘street cred’.”
An inmate had recently threatened to kill Maxwell, saying an extra 20 years in jail “would be worth the money she’d receive”.
The lawyers also argue that Maxwell’s upbringing, from when she was an “anorexic toddler”, her “family tragedy and controversy”, her relationship with Epstein and her age are causes for leniency. They also insist Maxwell is no longer “a danger to the community”. In conclusion, her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim argues: “Ghislaine Maxwell is not an heiress, villain or vapid socialite.
“She has worked hard her entire life. She has energy, drive, commitment, a strong work ethic, and desire to do good in the world. She had a difficult, traumatic childhood with an overbearing, narcissistic and demanding father. It made her vulnerable to Epstein, whom she met right after her father’s death.
“It is the biggest mistake she made in her life. She has never been accused of anything untoward in the over-15-year period since her relationship with Epstein. She has been in two committed, long-term, loving relationships with men who had young children. She is not a danger to the community.”
If Maxwell is sentenced to more than three years, which US lawyers claim is “assured”, she is expected to apply to be transferred to a British prison.
In their submission to the courts, her legal team says “the correct sentencing range under the United States Sentencing Guidelines is 51-63 months, not the 292-365 month range calculated by the US Probation Office”.
One of the girls recruited by Maxwell, Virginia Giuffre, accused Epstein’s friend Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her. She launched a civil case against the prince and in February, he agreed to pay £12million in an out-of-court settlement.
She had a difficult and traumatic childhood with an over-bearing, narcissistic father BOBBI STERNHEIM LAWYER FOR CONVICTED GHISLAINE MAXWELL