Ghislaine Maxwell calls meeting Jeffrey Epstein ‘the biggest regret of my life’ at sentencing
Ghislaine Maxwell said that the biggest regret of her life was meeting disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein as she addressed the court at her sentencing on Tuesday.
It comes after the victims of the British socialite contronted Maxwell about her role in helping sex offender and financier Epstein sexually abuse them.
Following the series of emotional and oftentimes explicit statements from the pair’s victims, Maxwell - dressed in a blue prison shirt over a white long-sleeved top - offered an apology to the women, and said she hoped her sentencing will offer them “peace and finality”.
She told the Manhattan federal court: “I empathised deeply with all the victims in this case. I realize I have been convicted of assisting Jeffrey Epstein to commit these crimes. My associate with Epstein will permanently stain me. It is the biggest regret of my life than I ever met him.
“I believe Jeffrey Epstein fooled all of those in his orbit. His victims considered him a mentor, friend, lover. Jeffrey Epstein should have stood before you. In 2005. In 2009. And again in 2019. But today it is for me to be sentenced.
“I am sorry for the pain you have experience. I hope my conviction and harsh incarceration brings you peace and finality. I hope this date bring a terrible chapter to the end.”
Maxwell’s statement follows a plea from her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim, who began her argument for a lenient sentence by addressing the victims saying: “You have shown courage.”
She went on to say that she will leave issues with the record to the Court of Appeals and said her remarks today are “about the Us asking for multiple decades for a 60-year-old woman”.
Ms Sternheim called the prosecution’s request for the maximum sentence “out of proportion”, adding: “Jeffrey Epstein would have faced the same, and he is clearly more culpable.”
Moments after Maxwell spoke, however, US District Judge Alison Nathan handed down a sentence of 20 years in prison for helping sex offender Epstein abuse teenage girls.
Her sentencing comes just six months after she was convicted by a federal jury on five charges, including sex trafficking.
The 60-year-old, who denies abusing anyone, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as a judge in the Southern District of New York passed sentence in front of a packed public gallery.
Maxwell sat quietly before the sentencing, looking ahead as Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe recounted how Maxwell subjected girls to “horrifying nightmares” by taking them to Epstein.
“They were partners in crime together and they molested these kids together,” she said, calling Maxwell “a person who was indifferent to the suffering of other human beings.”
This is a developing story.
