Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls

Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Prosecutors said Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, and couldn’t have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion and onetime girlfriend who they said sometimes also participated in the abuse.

In December, a jury convicted Maxwell of sex trafficking, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts and two conspiracy charges.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan also imposed a $750,000 fine, adding “a very significant sentence is necessary” and that she wanted to send an “unmistakable message” that these kinds of crimes would be punished.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to give her 30 to 55 years in prison, while the 60-year-old Maxwell’s defense sought a lenient sentence of just five years.

“We will continue to live with the harm she caused us,” said Annie Farmer, one of the four accusers who testified against Maxwell at trial, inside the courtroom before the sentencing, per The Associated Press.

Maxwell said it was the “greatest regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein.” Maxwell called him “a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life,” echoing her defense attorneys’ assertions that Epstein was the true mastermind.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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