The former partner of the late US multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been found guilty of sex crimes, according to consistent media reports.
The twelve jurors of the trial in a New York court gave their verdict on Wednesday after several days of deliberations.
In the trial, which has been running since November, Maxwell was accused of having played a central role as an assistant to Epstein, who is networked in the highest circles, in setting up a ring on the sexual abuse of minors.
Maxwell was charged on six counts of sex trafficking between 1994 and 2004. The daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell is said to have systematically recruited minors and young women for Epstein over the years, who were then sexually abused by him. In some cases she is said to have been involved in sexual assaults herself. Convicted in all six cases, she faced up to seventy years in prison.
In the closing arguments on Monday, the prosecution called Maxwell a "dangerous" and "cunning sex offender" who knew exactly what she was doing.
Prosecutor Alison Moe called the fifty-nine year old “the key to the whole thing”.
It is time to hold them accountable.
Maxwell's defense, however, had denied all allegations.
She herself had refrained from giving evidence at the end of the trial.
Attack on the witnesses
Defense attorney Laura Menninger said: "She is being tried here because she was with Jeffrey Epstein." That was perhaps the biggest mistake of her life, "but it was not a crime".
She also appealed to the jury to be skeptical of the "thin" evidence and "flimsy" testimony.
Time and again, the defense had questioned the credibility of the four witnesses who alleged abuse against Epstein and who accused Maxwell of involvement. The statements are financially motivated and inaccurate because of the events that occurred decades ago. Of the four women, one, Annie Farmer, testified under her real name at the trial. The others, "Jane", "Kate" and Carolyn, appeared as plaintiffs under pseudonyms or only with their first names.
Epstein, who socialized with well-known figures from politics and society such as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump as well as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, had committed suicide in a New York prison cell at the age of 66 after being arrested again for sex offenses in 2019.
In 2008 he was sentenced to 13 months in prison for illegal prostitution.
Less than a year after Epstein's death, in July 2020, Maxwell was arrested as his accomplice and has been in custody ever since.