Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted four days after her sixtieth birthday: guilty on five out of six counts.

Maxwell was outwardly calm when the judge in New York announced the jury's decision on Wednesday, just took a sip of water.

But the guilty verdict could mean that she will spend the rest of her life in prison.

She faces a prison sentence of up to 65 years.

It is not yet known when Judge Alison Nathan will announce the exact sentence.

Sofia Dreisbach

Editor in politics.

  • Follow I follow

For five full days, a total of forty hours, the jury of six women and six men had discussed Maxwell's case, requested minutes from witnesses, asked about the exact definition of legal terms, adjourned again.

With her guilty verdict, the affair of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of underage girls and young women comes to a temporary end, which goes back much further than Maxwell's arrest in July 2020.

Prosecutor Damian Williams put it like this after the decision on Wednesday: "The road to justice was far too long." But now they have been satisfied.

The jury found Maxwell "guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable," aiding and abetting child sexual abuse and involvement in it from 1994 to 2004.

Epstein as a key figure

In the end, Williams made a promise: New York prosecutors will always fight to ensure that no one - no matter how powerful and how well connected - is above the law.

Because the key figure in all of the abuse cases against Maxwell was a once influential man who met people like former American President Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the son of the British Queen, Prince Andrew: Jeffrey Epstein.

For years, the American finance manager and multimillionaire is said to have sexually abused girls and young women - with the help of Maxwell, who was found guilty of, among other things, sexual trafficking with minors. The Epstein case had become a symbol of impunity for influential and wealthy men in America because of a controversial agreement with the Florida prosecutor in 2008.

At that time, the businessman confessed to having recruited minors into prostitution for clients and got away with 13 months in prison - although he was suspected of having sexually abused at least forty minors. Because of the confession, he escaped trial in federal court. The deal was negotiated with the then public prosecutor Alexander Acosta, who later had to resign from President Donald Trump's labor minister as a result.

Epstein was able to maintain his pattern of sexual abuse especially of minors.

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, is said to have played a key role.

According to the conviction of the public prosecutor's office and now also the jury, she brought his victims to Epstein between 1994 and 2004 and forced them to perform sexual acts on him.

In part, she is said to have been involved in sexual assaults herself.

In the closing arguments of the November trial, the prosecution had called Maxwell a "dangerous" and "cunning sex offender".

You knew exactly what she was doing.

Prosecutor Alison Moe even described Maxwell as "the key to the whole matter".