Ghislaine Maxwell got 20 years in prison because she helped Jeffrey Epstein hurt girls.
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled that the 60-year-old woman who used to be a socialite will spend most of her life in prison.
The daughter of the late British newspaper mogul Robert Maxwell, who went to Oxford, was found guilty on five of six charges, including sex trafficking of minors. Her lawyers asked for leniency, saying that she had a hard childhood and that Epstein had been found not guilty.
They asked for five years, but the prosecutors wanted 30 to 55. The US Probation Office suggested 20 months, and Judge Alison Nathan went with that. During Maxwell’s high-profile trial in 2021, prosecutors said she was “the key” to Epstein’s plan to get young girls to give him massages and then sexually abuse them.
“Jane” and “Carolyn” said that Maxwell started to get to know them when they were 14 years old. Maxwell’s lawyers said he had a “traumatic childhood with a narcissistic mom.” “After her father died, she was vulnerable to Epstein,” they stated. Epstein, who was 66 years old, killed himself in prison while waiting for his trial in New York for sex crimes.
According to Ms. Maxwell’s attorneys, she “cannot and should not pay the full punishment of Epstein.”
‘Devastating damage’
According to the prosecution, Maxwell “was an adult who made her own decisions.” People said she didn’t feel bad about her crimes from 1994 to 2004. “Today’s penalty makes Ghislaine Maxwell pay for the heinous crimes she committed against children,” US Attorney Damian Williams stated.
Since she was arrested in New Hampshire in 2020, Maxwell has been in jail. Sarah Ransome said outside court, “Ghislaine must die in prison.” The punishment for Maxwell is the final blow to the former jetsetter and royal friend.
Prince Andrew, Trump, and the Clintons were all in her network. Prince Andrew settled a claim of sexual assault with Virginia Giuffre, who said that Epstein and Maxwell sold her to him so that they could do sexual acts on her.
Nathan denied Maxwell’s plea for a new trial in April. She tried to prove that a juror’s boasts about being a victim of sex abuse had swayed the jury, but she was not successful.
