(New York) The jury for the trial of former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, tried in New York for sex trafficking, resumes on Monday its deliberations to decide the guilt or innocence of the former companion of the American financier Jeffrey Epstein died in prison in 2019.
Mme Maxwell, who turned 60 on Christmas Day, is spending the holiday season in a New York prison where she has been incarcerated since the summer of 2020, prosecuted among other things for providing Mr. Epstein between the years 1994 and 2004 sexually exploited underage girls.
The trial in Manhattan federal court began Nov. 29 and hearings a week ago. Since then, the 12 jurors have not all managed to agree on the guilt or innocence of this woman of triple British, French and American nationality.
Ghislaine Maxwell risks a long prison sentence if she is found guilty of the six crimes attributed to her, all in connection with sexual violence committed by Jeffrey Epstein on four victims, minors at the time of the facts, and who testified during the trial.
Suspected of having surrounded himself for years with many young girls, to whom he asked for sexual massages, in his luxurious residences in Florida, New Mexico or in the US Virgin Islands, the multimillionaire had committed suicide in a new prison -Yorkaise in the summer of 2019. A death that caused a scandal, the influential financier taking away his secrets and depriving dozens of victims of a trial.
A year later, Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in the northeastern United States.
This regular in the international jet set, daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991, has been portrayed by prosecutor Alison Moe as a “sophisticated predator” and a key figure in the system set up with Jeffrey Epstein, of which she was the “Partner in love” and “the right arm”.
Thus, one of the victims, “Carolyn”, recounted how she was paid, from the age of 14, 300 dollars for each massage that always ended in a sexual act. She named Ghislaine Maxwell as one of the women who set the dates and assured that she had seen her naked and touched her breast in the Palm Beach villa.
The defense on the contrary pleaded the acquittal, assuring that there was “no proof that Ghislaine Maxwell” recruited only one of the four victims to deliver it to Jeffrey Epstein and criticizing “the very bad and variable memory” of the accusers. on events more than 25 years old.
During their deliberations, the jurors asked to have in hand the transcripts of several interrogations, including those of several victims.