After a five-day deliberation, a United States jury has found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of assisting the late Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell, 60, was accused of recruiting and grooming four teenage girls for American financier Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on abuse and trafficking charges. The British socialite was convicted on five of six counts, including one count of sex trafficking.
During the trial, jurors heard testimony from four women, two of whom said they were fourteen when Maxwell recruited them to be sexually abused by Epstein. Three of the four women testified that on some occasions Maxwell herself took part in the sexual encounters.
Maxwell and Epstein were romantically involved for several years in the 90s, and bank records disclosed at the trial proved that Epstein paid Maxwell millions of dollars over the years.
Prosecutor Alison Moe said that Maxwell was motivated to keep Epstein happy as a means to maintain her lavish lifestyle – this included recruiting teenage girls to engage in sexual activity with Epstein and some of his accomplices.
In her closing argument, Moe said that Maxwell’s presence made the teenagers feel comfortable with Epstein, who ‘could not have done this alone’. She added that Maxwell was a ‘sophisticated predator’ who knew exactly what she was doing.
In contrast, defence attorney, Laura Menninger, argued that Maxwell was innocent and that she was being used as a scapegoat for Epstein.
The defence claimed that the memories of the accusers had been corrupted and that they were motivated by money to implicate Maxwell in Epstein’s crimes. Menninger was referring to the fact that all four women had received million-dollar awards from a compensation fund set up for Epstein’s victims. On this basis, she argued, the victims’ testimonies were not credible.
In its closing arguments, the defence said: ‘They [the prosecution] certainly proved to you that Epstein had abused his money and his power. That has nothing to do with Ghislaine, and everything to do with Jeffrey Epstein.’
The jury disagreed and found Maxwell guilty on five of six charges.
She now faces up to 70 years in jail, though, according to legal analyst Mitchell Epner, Maxwell will more likely spend between 20 and 25 years behind bars.
Epner, a former federal prosecutor, considers the trafficking conviction to be the most important in recent history, adding: ‘Maxwell is somebody who was a real evildoer. She was absolutely essential to this ongoing, decades-long criminal enterprise to abuse children.’
Despite the conviction, many people have been left disappointed that information surrounding Epstein and Maxwell’s relationships with prominent figures like former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Britain’s Prince Andrew and billionaire investor Leon Black, has not been forthcoming.
However, referring to these high-profile associations, Epner said: ‘Given the success in this trial, the federal prosecutors who handled this case will almost certainly be given the latitude to pursue charges if they believe any are warranted against others.’
Maxwell’s legal team maintains that she is innocent and will be appealing the verdict.