Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for helping sex offender and investor Jeffrey Epstein molest teenagers.
The 60-year-old British socialite had been convicted in December of five charges, including child sex trafficking, for recruiting and preparing four young people to have sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend, between 1994 and 2004.
At his sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court before sentencing, Maxwell called Epstein “a manipulative, cunning and controlling man” who deceived everyone in his orbit and said he “regretted” the pain experienced by their victims.
“It is the biggest regret of my life to have met Jeffrey Epstein,” Maxwell said.
In sentencing, Circuit Judge Alison Nathan said Maxwell did not appear to express remorse or accept responsibility.
“Maxwell participated directly and repeatedly and over the course of many years in a horrific scheme to lure, transport and traffic underage girls, some as young as 14, to be sexually abused by and with Jeffrey Epstein,” Nathan said.
In often emotional and explicit testimony during the trial, Annie Farmer, a woman known as “Kate,” and two other women testified that Maxwell, who was convicted on five counts, was a central figure in Epstein’s abuse. .
During Tuesday’s hearing, Farmer said her experience being exploited by Maxwell “resulted in significant embarrassment” that at times left her feeling like she wanted to “disappear.”
Kate said she was proud to help hold Maxwell accountable.
“Today I can look at Ghislaine and tell her that I became who I am today despite her and her efforts to make me feel powerless and insignificant, and I will pass that power on to my daughter,” Kate said.
Maxwell’s trialwhich lasted a month in late 2021, was widely seen as the reckoning that Epstein — who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at age 66 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial — never had.
It was one of the highest-profile cases in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about sexual abuse, often at the hands of the rich and powerful.
Maxwell’s lawyers had said she should have been sentenced to no more than five years and three months, arguing that she is being scapegoated for Epstein’s crimes and had already spent significant time in jail.
Prosecutors had suggested that Maxwell be sentenced to between 30 and 55 years behind bars.
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