A US judge concluded on Friday that there was enough evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she also gave Maxwell a legal victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the same crime and she can only be sentenced for one.
US District Judge Alison Nathan said in her written ruling that the jury’s guilty verdicts were “readily supported” by extensive witness and documentary evidence at a one-month trial that concluded in December.
Lawyers for Maxwell had asked her to reject the verdict on several grounds, including insufficient evidence.
Maxwell was convicted of recruiting teenage girls for Epstein to abuse from 1994 to 2004.
Ms Nathan said that she would only sentence Maxwell in late June on three of the five counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts were duplicates of the third.
Earlier this month, the judge refused to toss out Maxwell’s conviction after a juror disclosed to other jurors during deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a child, even though he had not revealed that fact in response to questions about prior sex abuse in a written questionnaire.
The juror had said he “skimmed way too fast” through the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the wrong answer to a question about sex abuse.
In refusing to toss the verdict, Ms Nathan said the juror’s failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse during the jury selection process was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.
The judge also concluded the juror “harboured no bias towards the defendant and could serve as a fair and impartial juror".
Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, has remained incarcerated. Epstein was 66 when he took his own life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.
-
An artist's sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, listening as the guilty verdict for trafficking a minor is read in a New York City court. She was found guilty on five of six charges. Reuters -
Kevin Maxwell, Isabel Maxwell and Christine Maxwell, siblings of Ghislaine Maxwell, outside the New York City court where Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, was found guilty of trafficking minors. Reuters -
Defence lawyers Laura A Menninger and Jeffrey Pagliuca leave court in New York City after the guilty verdicts in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein. Reuters -
Kevin Maxwell, brother to Ghislaine Maxwell, leaves the New York City court where Ghislaine, former girlfriend of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted on five of six charges including trafficking a minor and transporting a minor for criminal sexual activity. Reuters -
News media outside the US Federal District Court House in New York City after Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five of the six charges she faced. EPA -
A New York courtroom artist's sketch shows United States District Judge Alison Nathan reading guilty verdicts against Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein. AP -
Defence lawyer Bobbi Sternheim leaves the New York City court where a jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by her (Maxwell's) former boyfriend, US financier Jeffrey Epstein. AFP -
Defence lawyer Bobbi Sternheim leaves the New York City court where a jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of recruiting and grooming young girls. AFP -
A courtroom sketch shows Ghislaine Maxwell, left, listening with her lawyer Jeffrey Pagliuca as a jury returns a guilty verdict in her sex trafficking trial in New York. AP
