Ghislaine Maxwell said the biggest regret of her life was the encounter with the disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein when she addressed the court on Tuesday during her sentencing.
This comes after the victims of British social member Maxwell confronted her about her role in helping sex offender and financier Epstein sexually abuse them.
Following the series of emotional and often explicit statements from the couple’s victims, Maxwell – dressed in a blue prison shirt over a white long-sleeved top – apologized to the women, saying she hoped her sentencing for them “peace and finality “will offer”.
She told the federal court in Manhattan: “I have deep empathy with all the victims in this case. I realize I was convicted that I assisted Jeffrey Epstein in committing these crimes. My partner with Epstein will stain me permanently. It’s the biggest regret of my life than I’ve ever met him.
“I believe Jeffrey Epstein fooled everyone in his orbit. His victims regarded him as a mentor, friend, lover. Jeffrey Epstein should have stood in front of you. In 2005. In 2009. And again in 2019. But today it’s for me to be sentenced.
“I am sorry for the pain you experienced. I hope my conviction and hard confinement bring you peace and finality. I hope this date brings a terrible chapter to an end. ”
Maxwell’s statement follows a plea from her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim, who began her argument for a light sentence by addressing the victims and saying, “You have shown courage.”
She further said she would leave problems with the record to the Court of Appeal and said her remarks today are about the US asking for multiple decades for a 60-year-old woman.
Ms Sternheim called the prosecutor’s request for the maximum sentence “out of proportion” and added: “Jeffrey Epstein would have faced the same thing, and he is clearly more guilty.”
Moments after Maxwell spoke, however, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan sentenced him to 20 years in prison for helping sex offender Epstein abuse teenage girls.
Her sentencing comes just six months after she was convicted by a federal jury on five charges, including sex trafficking.
The 60-year-old, who denies abusing anyone, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion when a judge in the Southern District of New York handed down a sentence in front of a crowded public gallery.
Maxwell sat quietly in front of the sentencing and looked ahead while Alison Moe, assistant U.S. attorney, recounted how Maxwell subjected girls to “horrific nightmares” by taking them to Epstein.
“They were partners in crime together and they molested these children together,” she said, calling Maxwell “a person who was indifferent to the suffering of other people.”
More to follow