More than 17 years passed, numerous lawsuits, private statements and a three-week criminal trial. But in the end, the public, and the victims of the crimes for which she was convicted, listened to Ghislaine Maxwell.
At 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the disgraced socialite rose from her seat in a federal courtroom in New York City, where she was being convicted of aiding – and sometimes participating in – the sexual abuse of numerous underage girls by his former consort, Jeffrey. Epstein.
Once upon a time, an elegant element of the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Palm Beach in Florida, mingling with presidents and dancing in royal dances, Maxwell wore a light blue prison sweater over a sleeveless T-shirt. long. His ankles were chained.
He hadn’t been expected to speak, and a rage of emotion swept across the room as he put on his reading glasses and shuffled the papers. Then came the purring of Maxwell’s voice. Where previous comments from his victims had been rushed or overwhelmed by sobs, his were soft, steady, trained in public school, like a royal addressing the Commonwealth.
“His honor. I find it hard to go to court after hearing the pain and anguish expressed in the statements that have been made here today,” he began. “I want to acknowledge his suffering and empathize deeply with all the victims.” His association with Epstein, he said, “would stain me forever and permanently.”
It was a clear difference from the years Maxwell spent mocking and threatening his accusers for trying to silence them.
Maxwell, who was convicted in December of trafficking girls as young as 14, hinted that she also saw herself as a victim. He described Epstein as “a manipulative, cunning and controlling man,” adding, “His impact on everyone close to him has been devastating.”
In the pre-sentencing proceedings, his lawyers had also pointed the finger at his father, Robert Maxwell, the late British publishing house baron and embezzler, whom they described as “narcissistic and brutal”.
Maxwell, 60, took eight minutes to complete before returning to his seat.
Judge Alison Nathan’s reaction was swift. While Maxwell’s statement had acknowledged the suffering of the victims, the judge said “what was not expressed is acceptance of responsibility.”
The lack of contrition seemed to figure in the 20-year prison sentence Nathan handed down moments later. With that came the judge’s observation about Maxwell’s tendency to “divert guilt” and a refutation of his defenders’ suggestion that he had been turned into Epstein’s scapegoat, who was found hanged in his cell. in prison weeks after his arrest in July 2019.
“Mrs. Maxwell is not being punished instead of Epstein, nor as Epstein’s attorney,” the judge said.
“The damage done to these girls was incalculable,” he added.
Maxwell sat down at the defense table as the judge spoke, flanked by lawyers and supported by the family, including his brother Kevin and his sister Isabel. He was mostly impassive, except for a few sips of water or scribbles in a notebook.
He had maintained this stance throughout a day that featured creepy statements from five victims, some of whom had not been heard before, about the ways in which their lives were destroyed.
One, Elizabeth Stein, explained how Maxwell had prepared her when she was a young student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and worked as a fellow at the Henri Bendel department store.
“He was assaulted, raped and trafficked countless times in New York and Florida over a three-year period,” he said. Now 48, Stein said he had endured two dozen hospitalizations for physical and mental problems and had lost all the elements of a normal life his siblings had enjoyed: a career, a partner and a own family.
“The only difference between them and me is that one day I was doing my job and I met Ghislaine Maxwell, who fed me Jeffrey Epstein,” Stein said.
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Others spoke of suicide attempts, extreme anxiety, nightmares, uncontrollable crying, and an inability to trust, even so many years later. No one believed Ghislaine felt remorse.
“She doesn’t think what she did is wrong. She doesn’t mind. She would do it again,” said one victim, identified only as Kate. “His blatant refusal to take responsibility is the ultimate insult.”
After reading his sentence, Maxwell accepted a brief hug and a few whispered words from his lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, as two American marshals approached. She then took one last sip of water before they drove her away, into the federal prison system.
Under the outside sun, Sigrid McCawley, Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s lawyer, one of the first charges against Epstein, called Maxwell’s statement “pathetic.” The lawyer expressed displeasure, but not necessarily surprise.
“It was very Ghislaine,” he said.