Ghislaine Maxwell, sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing minors to the sexual predator Epstein

One of the photos shown at the trial against Ghislaine Maxwell, who in the undated image appears with Jeffrey Epstein. HANDOUT (AFP)

Ghislaine Maxwell, right-hand man of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, has been sentenced this Tuesday to 20 years in prison for providing minors to the financier, who committed suicide at 66 years in prison in 2019 before facing justice.

A popular jury found Maxwell, 60, guilty in December of five crimes of sex trafficking, related to the recruitment and

of as many adolescents to sexually satisfy Epstein, who was his partner, in a plot of abuse that lasted between 1994 and 2004.

The reading of the sentence has suffered a considerable delay after Judge Alison Nathan, of the federal court in Manhattan, allowed to read a brief statement to three women who claim to have also been victims of Maxwell and Epstein but who did not testify during the trial. .

The defendant's lawyers objected to the intervention of Sarah Ransome, Teresa Helm and Elizabeth Stein, arguing that they were no longer minors at the time of their alleged abuse and therefore could not be considered victims.

The prosecution had requested between 30 and 55 years in prison for Maxwell, while the final recommendation proposed a range of 24 to 30 years, and as the most possible option no more than 20. The defense, at least, can score a small victory, the fact that Judge Nathan applied to Maxwell the penalties in force when the crimes were committed instead of the current, more severe ones, so the sentence did not reach the maximum requested by the prosecution.

The socialite faced a month-long media process last year in which the girls abused by Epstein declared, with often heartbreaking testimonies.

For the defense of the British, daughter of the press tycoon Robert Maxwell, the process was more of a settling of scores that justice could not do with the pedophile Epstein, so that the woman would have paid for all pending cases of that one

Maxwell's has been one of the most high-profile cases in the wake of the MeToo movement, which encouraged women sexually abused by wealthy and powerful men to speak out.

So much so that one of those involved, Virginia Giuffre, has repeatedly put Prince Andrew of England on the ropes, who she claims abused her when she was a minor after Epstein

her (it is the term used by her).

Giuffre, her current married name, also mediated in her day to convince one of the deponents, the most vulnerable due to her family uprooting and a history of addictions, to accept the offer to massage the financier, the prelude to abuse.

Before knowing the intervention of three other victims -limited by the judge to the reading of a small statement-, in the session held this Tuesday in the federal court in Manhattan, three of the four victims of Epstein and Maxwell had requested to intervene.

They are Annie Farmer and a woman known as Kate (not her real name), who testified against Maxwell in December, and Giuffre herself, who did not testify at trial but is considered by the jury to be one of the victims.

In February, Giuffre reached an agreement to settle a civil lawsuit against the son of Queen Elizabeth II of England, whose reputation she has damaged, when her mother withdrew all her titles and honors because of the scandal.

The prosecution had asked last week for 30 years in prison for Maxwell, whose behavior it described as "shockingly predatory", and the maximum sentence is 55 years for overlapping charges, which would mean that he would spend the time he has left of life behind bars .

The lawyers of Epstein's ex-partner accepted a sentence of no more than six years, assuring that he has been the scapegoat for Epstein's crimes and that he has already spent almost two in jail, since he was arrested in July 2020 in a secluded New Hamsphire mansion, and was repeatedly denied bail.

She is being held at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, where she has complained about the unsanitary conditions in her cell - full of vermin and raw sewage, according to her attorneys - her,

Maxwell was subjected last Friday to a special anti-suicide surveillance protocol.

Her lawyer has compared the conditions of her confinement with those of the psychopath Hannibal Lecter in the movie

, although he denies that he has manifested suicidal tendencies.

The very expensive defense of Maxwell has tried in recent months to paint an idyllic image of the woman, based on testimonies from her fellow prisoners, and specifically thanks to a letter sent to the judge by the inmate who shared her cell, according to which the British heiress was "kind and true" and offered to give him English and yoga classes.