Federal prosecutors have called for a 30- to 55-year prison sentence for Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of managing a trafficking in abused minors by financier Jeffrey Epstein, who took his own life in prison in 2019. “Maxwell was an adult who he made his choices and chose to sexually exploit several underage girls, he chose to plot for years with Epstein, working as a partner in crime and causing enormous damage to vulnerable victims, ”the prosecutors wrote. The defenders of the British heiress asked instead between the ages of 4 and five, stating that her difficult childhood made her vulnerable to Epstein’s influence.
“This court cannot convict Ms. Maxwell in Epstein’s place simply because he is gone, it cannot take on all the punishments that would have been incumbent on him,” the lawyers said. The judge’s decision on the sentence is expected next week.
In 2008 Epstein had pleaded guilty to inducing prostitution, but the story – with new details and new accusations – had re-emerged fifteen years later with the testimony of one of the ex-girls, Virginia Giuffre, who had also involved Prince Andrew. friend of Epstein. Among the frequenters of the New York living room there was also the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, then forced to divorce his wife, Melinda French Gates, shocked by the revelations. The last piece was missing from the mosaic: that of the “Lady of the harem”.
After a long escape, Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 in New Hampshire, taken to New York and locked up in jail from which she has never been released. The lawyers asked the judge, Alison J. Nathan, for a maximum sentence of five years, two months and five days. The lawyers tried to play the victim’s card, explaining that Maxwell’s behavior was the result of her “painful adolescence”, marked by a cruel and intimidating father, a position that the federal prosecutors have rejected. “Instead of showing the slightest sign of admission of responsibility – wrote the attorney Damian Williams – the accused is making a desperate attempt to place the blame on anyone else possible. Maxwell – she added – she was an adult and she made her choices about her. And her choice was to sexually exploit underage girls ».