NEW YORK: Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty by a US jury on Wednesday of helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, sealing a remarkable fall from grace for the British socialite.

Maxwell, 60, was accused of recruiting and grooming four teenagers between 1994 and 2004 for Epstein, her former boyfriend who killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges of his own.

She was convicted on five of six counts, including one count of sex trafficking. Lawyers for Maxwell, who faces up to 65 years in prison, vowed to appeal.

Maxwell’s trial was widely seen as the reckoning Epstein never had and one of the highest-profile cases in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about sexual abuse by famous and powerful people.

During the month-long trial, jurors heard emotional and explicit testimony from four women who portrayed Maxwell as central to their abuse by Epstein. Three of the four said Maxwell herself took part in the encounters, which often began as massages.

Maxwell’s attorneys sought to undermine the women’s credibility, arguing that they were motivated by money to implicate Maxwell since all four had received million-dollar awards from a compensation fund for Epstein’s victims.

But the women disputed those characterisations, saying they decided to testify out of a desire for justice, not money. “Money will not ever fix what that woman has done to me,” testified one woman, known by her first name Carolyn.

Her case was at the heart of the sex trafficking charge because she said Maxwell would sometimes hand her hundreds of dollars in cash after she gave Epstein erotic massages in his Palm Beach, Florida estate.

The jury deliberated for five full days before reaching the verdict.

After the verdict was read, Maxwell, wearing a burgundy turtleneck, poured herself a glass of water. Defence attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca patted her upper back. An expressionless Maxwell looked briefly at two of her siblings seated in the front row as she left the courtroom.

Blow for Andrew

The conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell for sex trafficking is a further blow for her embattled royal former friend Prince Andrew, British media said on Thursday.

Andrew has denied sexually assaulting one of Epstein’s alleged victims, who is suing him in the United States.

Virginia Giuffre has launched a civil claim suing Andrew for unspecified damages, alleging he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, a minor under US law. She claims she was lent out by Epstein to his powerful associates and forced to have sex with Andrew three times — the first time at Maxwell’s London home.

The prince has repeatedly and strenuously denied this, saying he does not remember meeting Giuffre and “absolutely and categorically did not have sex with her”.

He has not been criminally charged. Buckingham Palace has reiterated this denial. Andrew withdrew from royal duties after a widely derided 2019 television interview where he attempted to clear his name.

A famous photo apparently shows Andrew with Maxwell at her London house, while he has an arm around Giuffre’s naked midriff. Andrew has suggested the photo could have been doctored.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2021