Maxwell on suicide watch after ‘screw-up’ over Epstein

GHISLAINE MAXWELL, the long-time associate and one-time girlfriend of disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been made to wear paper clothes in her prison cell in New York, so worried are officials that she might take her own life.

Ms Maxwell was arrested by the FBI last Thursday on charges that she helped lure at least three girls, one as young as 14, to be sexually abused by Epstein.

She denies the charges.

The steps taken by the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn far extend the usual measures, according to the Associated Press.

The Justice Department has reportedly implemented additional safety protocols in the event Ms Maxwell, 58, tries to harm herself, or in case other inmates wish to harm her. Guards must also ensure she has a room-mate in her cell and is being monitored at all times.

The concern comes in part because Epstein, 66, killed himself in a jail in Manhattan last summer while in custody on sex trafficking charges.

The Bureau of Prisons has been the subject of intense scrutiny and conspiracy theories since then, with staff shake ups and leadership changes. William Barr, the US Attorney General, said his death was the result of the “perfect storm of screw-ups”.

Two prison guards on duty the night of Epstein’s reported suicide are accused of falsifying official logs to show they made cell-checks they never made. The indictment also accused them of sleeping on the job and casually browsing the internet in the hours before Epstein’s body was found.

The Brooklyn jail, whose most notable former inmates include actress Alison Mack and singer R Kelly, has previously earned a reputation as one of the worst federal jails in the US owing to a string of investigations into prisoner abuse and its poor conditions.