Sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years

Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US federal judge for sex trafficking of minors in the abuse case of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The daughter of British press tycoon Robert Maxwell, also of American and French nationality, had been convicted of child sex trafficking for Epstein, her former partner, and friend, who committed suicide in 2019 in prison.

At the final hearing before a Manhattan court, Maxwell admitted: "the terrible damage" he did "to too many women." “It is difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept. I'm sorry for all the pain you've experienced," the 60-year-old woman said.

The sentence was more lenient than the penalty of between 30 and 55 years requested by the New York prosecutor's office.

The jury had found her guilty on December 29 of five of the six charges against her, including that of sexual trafficking of minors for Epstein.

For the prosecution, her"responsibility" in that traffic and "the total lack of remorse" justified the request for a long sentence for this figure of the international jet set, educated in Oxford, and who since her arrest in the summer of 2020 in the United States, has been in jail.

After the frustrated attempt to invalidate the trial, her defense, headed by the renowned criminalist Bobbi Sternheim, asked in mid-June for clemency for his client and a sentence of less than 20 years.

On Saturday, Sternheim reported to the judge in charge of the case, Alison Nathan, that Maxwell had been isolated in a cell due to risk of suicide, "without justification", despite the fact that a subsequent psychological examination "determined that she is not suicidal."

Nefarious influence
Maxwell's defense considers that his client was the victim of the nefarious influence exercised by both her father – "authoritarian, narcissistic and demanding" – and Epstein, whom she met after the death in mysterious circumstances of her father.

The relationship with the billionaire financier was "the worst mistake of her life," the defense said.

Maxwell and Epstein were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in sexual crimes for nearly 30 years.