Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex trafficking

Found guilty of child sex trafficking at the end of 2021, the socialist English Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-partner was sentenced this Tuesday in a New York court in 20 years in prison.

At the start of the hearing, Judge Alison J. Nathan ruled that the standard she would use to convict Maxwell was between 15 and a half to 19 and a half years in prison, roughly the half of the sentence from 30 to 55 years is required by federal prosecutors.

The defence he had asked for a five-year sentence for the daughter of British press mogul Robert Maxwell and ex-partner Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in 2019 in a New York prison before sitting on the bench.

A jury had sentenced on December 29 five of his six charges, including child sex trafficking on behalf of Epstein.

The accusation’s argument

For the prosecution, his “responsibility” in child trafficking and “total lack of remorse” justify the demand for a lengthy sentence for this Oxford-educated international jet set figure who has since been arrested in the summer of 2020 in the United States, is in jail.

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

On Saturday, Sternheim told the judge in charge of the case, Alison Nathan, that Maxwell had been isolated in cell for suicide risk, “without justification”despite a subsequent psychological examination “determined that he is not suicidal”.

His client, he assured, is not authorized to “possess or review legal documents” or “pen or paper”, which he has “prevented from preparing for sentence”which would justify a postponement of the sentence.

The defense argues

Maxwell’s defense claimed his client was victim of harmful influences exercised both by his father – “authoritarian, narcissistic and demanding” – and by Epstein, whom he met after his father’s death under mysterious circumstances.

The relationship with the billionaire financier was “the worst mistake of his life,” the defense said.

Maxwell, who has triple British, French and American nationality, and Epstein They were a couple in the early 1990s. before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in his sexual crimes for nearly 30 years.

At her trial in a Manhattan court last year, Maxwell was described as a “sophisticated predator” who acted knowingly to entice and seduce young people for the amusement of Epstein and his friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, in their residences in Florida. , Manhattan or the Virgin Islands.

Witnesses “Jane”, “Kate”, “Carolyn” and Annie Farmer, 42, the only one who testified without a pseudonym, recounted their lives shattered by the forced sexual relations with Epstein when they were between the ages of 14 and 17, often in the presence of Maxwell.

One victim targeted Ghislaine Maxwell

Virginia Giuffre, one of the victims of the Maxwell-Epstein couple who sued Prince Andrew of England for sexual abuse when he was a minor, was released on Friday, according to the Law & Crime Production network, a statement in which accuses Maxwell of being the one who led her to the pedophile.

“For me, and for many others, you opened the door to hell for us. And then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us and you involved us all”, reads the post.

Prince Andrew of England, friend of Epstein, in February reached a financial agreement – according to the British press of 13 million dollars – to end an abuse lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who assured that Epstein and Maxwell they “borrowed” to have sex with the prince when he was a minor.

Maxwell’s trial cannot be explained without Epstein’s arrest on 6 July 2019 for sexual exploitation of children and conspiracy.

The billionaire, accused ten years earlier in Florida of using dozens of minors in exchange for money, struck a controversial deal with the then Florida Attorney General to avoid a conviction. His suicide in prison freed him from trialbut the prosecution has promised to investigate his possible accomplices.

Source: AFP