HomeThe LatestDisgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial begins

Disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial begins

Disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial begins

Audrey Strauss, the Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell, who is seen here with infamous businessman Jeffrey Epstein.

 Ghislaine Maxwell was once the toast of the jet-set party circuit, a knows-everyone socialite with an aura of mystique. She was a friend of British royalty who romanced billionaires and wowed elites.

But now, as she awaits her trial on allegations of sex trafficking kids with the late Jeffrey Epstein, the daughter of late British media mogul Robert Maxwell spends her days in a Brooklyn jail cell that has been dubbed barbaric, complaining of vermin and terrible food.

If convicted of conspiring to run a sex crimes ring, which prosecutors say subjected hundreds of minor girls to heinous mistreatment, she faces up to 80 years in prison.

It’s been a tawdry fall for the 59-year-old socialite, who was apprehended in a small New Hampshire town in July 2020 after suddenly vanishing following the shocking murder of Epstein, her lover-turned-close friend.

The 66-year-old businessman was caught in the midst of a scandal before passing away while awaiting trial on allegations of child sex trafficking.

The official coroner in New York deemed Epstein’s death a suicide, and authorities promised to go after the suspected predator’s accomplices, leading to the arrest of French-born, Oxford-educated Maxwell.

Maxwell was described by Epstein’s accusers as the registered sex offender’s clandestine right-hand confidante and accomplice, who served as both paramour and madam at his command.

According to 2,000 pages of court documents unsealed just before Epstein’s death, the two devised a strategy to recruit young females for Epstein, who claimed a “biological” need for sex three times a day.

Epstein’s “recruiters” contacted victims outside their schools or at their workplaces, according to the plaintiffs in his case, some of whom were underage at the time of the alleged assaults.

Prosecutors allege that beginning in the mid-1990s, Maxwell took young females under her wing, cajoling them into giving Epstein nude massages and sex acts.

She’s also accused of assaulting the girls at her London house and at Epstein’s several luxury locations in the United States.

Maxwell would stay in the room while Epstein abused youngsters, which “helped put the victims at ease because an adult woman was present,” according to one indictment text.

Maxwell’s name was brought to public attention in 1991 when her father, a British media magnate who also served six years in parliament, went overboard from his yacht, which he had named “Lady Ghislaine” after his cherished youngest daughter.

The apparent accidental drowning of the Czechoslovakian-born billionaire sparked rumors, as did disclosures of his financial misconduct at Mirror Group Newspapers, which tainted the family name.

Maxwell’s life of opulence, however, continued unabated: she rebranded herself in Manhattan and became a fixture on the glitterati’s party circuit.

Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, former US President and real estate mogul Donald Trump, and the Clinton family were all in her circle.

The socialite was described as “always the most intriguing, vibrant, and odd person in every room” by a Vanity Fair reporter in 2011.

Maxwell was an ardent scuba diver and pilot who founded the TerraMar Project, a now-defunct environmental nonprofit.

It’s unknown how she met Epstein, whom she supposedly dated briefly in the 1990s before becoming friends with.

Maxwell was indicted on six counts after years of allegations, including a New York FBI agent calling her a “villain.” She has categorically denied any misconduct.

Maxwell, who has various passports, is considered a flight risk by officials, who have repeatedly denied her bail.

She’s complained to UN human rights officials about the circumstances at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she’s been confined in isolation for more than a year.

Her legal team claims that the filthy conditions have rendered her fragile and ill.

However, she appeared rather elegant in a black turtleneck and gray leggings during jury selection earlier this month, her dark hair, which she had complained about losing in prison, shining once again.

Her defense team is expected to focus on attacking the four women named in the indictment.

However, prosecutors claim that it is Maxwell who has mastered the art of deception.

“She pretended to be a woman they could trust,” Manhattan’s lead federal prosecutor has said.

“All the while, she was setting them up to be abused.”




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