Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prison
NEW YORK: Ghislaine Maxwell was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” who “opened a door to hell,” Australian woman Virginia Giuffre told a US court as the former socialite was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls.
Maxwell – who once called princes and presidents close friends – was given “240 months” in prison followed by five years supervised release at her sentencing hearing in a Manhattan Federal Court for recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein.
She was also ordered to pay a $US750,000 fine ($A1.08m), which her legal team said she is unable to afford.
In a statement to court, Maxwell told Epstein’s victims she hoped her conviction brought them “closure,” but her lawyers said she would appeal the sentence.
In her victim impact statement read out in court by her lawyer, Giuffre – who was not in court for the sentencing – told Maxwell she would not have met “terrible paedophile Jeffrey Epstein if it was not for you”.
“You opened a door to hell,” she said. “And then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us, and you led us all through it.”
Wearing a grey T-shirt over a white, long sleeve top, and baggy trousers, Maxwell didn’t appear to shed any tears upon learning her fate.
“It is hard for me to address the court after listening to the pain and anguish expressed here today,” Maxwell said.
“The terrible impact on the lives of these women is difficult to hear and absorb. I want to acknowledge their suffering. I empathise deeply with all the victims in this case.”
Maxwell said her “association with Epstein and this case will forever and permanently stain me”.
“It is the greatest regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein,” she added. Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by the late billionaire paedophile at his mansions and estates in Manhattan, New Mexico, Florida and the Virgin Islands between 1994 and 2004.
A jury found her guilty on five of six counts, the most serious being for sex trafficking minors.
Epstein was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019. He died by suicide, aged 66, in jail a month later while awaiting trial.