Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In NYC Federal Court: Reports

NEW YORK CITY — Ghislaine Maxwell will serve 20 years in prison after being convicted of helping the notorious Manhattan financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, according to reports from inside the courtroom.

Maxwell, 60, received the lengthy sentence Tuesday in a New York City federal courtroom, the result of a staggering downfall for the prominent socialite who once hobnobbed with elites across the globe.

The sentence is decades less than the maximum 55 years sought by prosecutors, but U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan called it "significant" and warranted by Maxwell's actions and lack of remorse.

"Her conduct was heinous and predatory," Nathan said, according to Matthew Russell Lee, an Inner City Press reporter allowed to tweet from the courtroom.

"Ms. Maxwell is not being punished as a proxy of Epstein, but rather for her role in the criminal conduct. She participated in some of the abuse."

The sentence could bring scores of women — whom authorities said Epstein sexually abused at young ages — a measure of justice they were denied when the billionaire financier died, apparently by suicide in a jail cell in 2019.

Some women gave wrenching testimony in the hearing about Epstein's abuse, saying Maxwell had played an intimate role in it.

Prosecutors argued that Epstein couldn't have committed his crimes without Maxwell, his former girlfriend turned inseparable companion. They sought a sentence of up to 55 years in prison after jurors in December found Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts and two conspiracy charges.

"As part of a disturbing agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell identified, groomed, and abused multiple victims, while she enjoyed a life of extraordinary luxury and privilege," they wrote in a sentencing memo. "In her wake, Maxwell left her victims permanently scarred with emotional and psychological injuries."

The trial focused on accusations from six women who said Epstein abused them at ages as young as 14 with Maxwell's help. They testified in a graphic detail about how Maxwell gave instructions on how to massage Epstein and touch him sexually, and about how she participated in the abuse that unfolded in Epstein's Upper East Side townhouse and elsewhere.

It was difficult to capture in words the harm that Maxwell caused the young girls, prosecutors wrote.

"They were children who experienced what can only be described as a recurring nightmare: again and again, they found themselves alone with Maxwell and Epstein in terrifying mansions where they were sexually abused and physically violated," a sentencing memo states.

"They were trapped in an exploitative relationship with Maxwell and Epstein that, for many victims, lasted for years."

Maxwell denied abusing anyone — instead, her lawyers tried to shift focus to Epstein.

“The witnesses at trial testified about Ms. Maxwell’s facilitation of Epstein’s abuse, but Epstein was always the central figure," they wrote in a court filing.

"Epstein was the mastermind, Epstein was the principal abuser, and Epstein orchestrated the crimes for his personal gratification.”

But prosecutors contended that Maxwell, unlike the young girls she groomed for Epstein, had the freedom to choose.

During sentencing arguments, Alison Moe, an assistant U.S. Attorney, told Nathan that Maxwell saw two kinds of people: "Those who mattered and those who were disposable."

"She jet setted [sic] with Epstein; they molested kids together," Moe said, Lee reported. "These girls now women are strong, they have shown the world. They carry the trauma."

And many of those women recounted that trauma in victim statements before Maxwell learned her sentence.

One woman said she jumped into shark-infested waters to escape Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, while another recounted how three years of rape after meeting Epstein and Maxwell left her "like someone turned off the lights to my soul," Lee reported.

Maxwell, in her own statement, claimed she "empathized deeply" with all the victims in the case, Lee reported. She said her association with Epstein will permanently stain her, according to Lee's tweets.

"It is the biggest regret of my life than [sic] I ever met him," Maxwell said, according to Lee.

In the end, the judge agreed with prosecutors that Maxwell's actions caused devastating harm to vulnerable victims and wasn't being sentenced as a proxy of Epstein.

"The sentencing submissions did not express remorse or accept responsibility," Nathan reportedly said. "I will take into account her lack of remorse. I conclude that a sentence of 240 months is right."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.