Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on Wednesday for helping late sex criminal and financier Jeffrey Epstein abuse underage girls.
Ghislaine, 60, faced six criminal counts at her trial and the jury, which consisted of six men and six women, found her guilty of five of the six counts, after five days of deliberation. Maxwell was found guilty for conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004.
According to multiple news outlets, as the judge read the jury’s verdict in Manhattan federal court, Maxwell did not appear to have any reaction behind a black face mask. She reportedly looked at her siblings, who had attended her trial each day and was then escorted out of the courtroom. Her family members also exited the courtroom without comment.
“The road to justice has been far too long. But, today, justice has been done. I want to commend the bravery of the girls – now grown women – who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom,” wrote Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement following the verdict. “Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and today’s result, possible,” he added.
With the guilty verdict, Maxwell faces decades in prison. The British socialite was arrested in New Hampshire in July 2020, a year after Epstein was arrested on child sex trafficking charges. Epstein committed suicide in his prison cell July 2019 and Maxwell has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2020.
Maxwell is the first person charged in connection with Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse of underage girls other than him. During the alleged abuse, the accusers were teenagers.
Maxwell faces a second trial on perjury charges for allegedly lying under oath in a lawsuit filed by an accuser of Epstein.
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