For 10 years, Ghislaine Maxwell procured underage girls for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who took his own life in prison in 2019. Her sentencing came after some of Maxwell’s victims demanded in court that she spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite convicted last year of trafficking young sexual abuse survivors to Jeffrey Epstein for 10 years, on Tuesday was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Some of Maxwell’s victims were in federal court to confront her, demanding that she spend the rest of her life behind bars.
It was a tense scene inside the courtroom, where Maxwell could be seen talking with her attorneys. Her feet were shackled, her hair was grown out and she appeared to have aged in prison.
Wearing a navy-blue prison outfit, she spoke only once in a low voice, acknowledging to Judge Alison J. Nathan she had read her presentence report.
From 1994 to 2004, Maxwell, 60, procured a harem of underage girls for disgraced billionaire Epstein, who took his own life in his prison cell in 2019. Maxwell was indicted one year later.
Federal prosecutors described Maxwell as a "calculating, sophisticated, and dangerous criminal who preyed on vulnerable young girls and groomed them for sexual abuse."
They asked Nathan to give Maxwell at least a 30-year sentence for her role in providing victims to Epstein.
Nathan said sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence of between 15 and 19 years. Nathan’s sentence of 240 months, or 20 years, came after she heard from Maxwell’s victims and Maxwell herself.
