Epstein accuser calls Ghislaine Maxwell’s 20-year sentence a 'big victory'
After Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking of underage girls, Annie Farmer, who testified at the trial, called the outcome “a big victory” and said it’s “never too late for the truth to come out.”
Video Transcript
ANNIE FARMER: May this sentence demonstrate that it is never too late for the truth to come out and never too late for there to be accountability. If you're someone who's experienced sexual abuse or exploitation and did not feel safe to report those crimes or were not believed when you did or were told that the perpetrators would not be held accountable, this is for you. There's still a lot of work to be done on this issue, but in this fight we need to celebrate the victories and today this is a big victory.
The truths about these crimes about child sexual abuse and exploitation are deeply uncomfortable. They happen more frequently than we want to acknowledge. And often perpetrators, as we saw in this case, are not strangers in vans, they're the people that live in our communities and they are people often in positions of power.
Maxwell and Epstein were predators who are able to use that power and privilege to harm countless individuals. And for far too long the institutions that should be protecting the public were instead protecting them. And I still hope that we find out more about how that was allowed to occur.
- How did you feel speaking in court, Annie? How did you feel speaking in court?
ANNIE FARMER: It actually felt very powerful to finally have a chance to speak and have my voice on the record and say the things that I wanted to say about how her crimes had impacted the people, infected myself and the people that I know and care about.
- Annie, how did you feel listening to her in court?
ANNIE FARMER: Just I'll just say one more thing. That, yeah, her statement felt like a very hollow apology to me. She did not take responsibility for the crimes that she committed. And it felt like once more her trying to do something to benefit her and not at all about the harm that she had caused.
- Is 20 years long enough, Annie? Is 20 years long enough?
ANNIE FARMER: We're very happy with the sentence.
- Thank you.
