The jury agreed on a verdict. The former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on Wednesday by a New York court of a series of sex crimes, in particular that of trafficking in young underage girls between 1994 and 2004.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, had been tried since the end of November by the Manhattan federal court on six counts, in particular that of having provided minors to her former companion, the American financier Jeffrey Epstein, to be abused. sexually. Epstein committed suicide in New York City jail in August 2019, depriving his victims of a sex crimes trial.
Ghislaine Maxwell faces decades in prison.
One of the worst crimes you can imagine
“A unanimous jury has found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable – facilitating and taking part in the sexual assault of children,” the federal court’s prosecutor said in a statement by Manhattan Damian Williams.
These “crimes were perpetrated with his lifelong partner and accomplice, Jeffrey Epstein”. “The path to righteousness has taken too long. But justice has been served today, ”welcomed the prosecutor, praising the“ courage of the girls – who have become women ”, four victims who testified for three weeks against Ghislaine Maxwell.
A deliberation that was long overdue
The six women and six men on the New York court jury had not been able for a week (40 hours and five days to be precise) to agree unanimously on the guilt or innocence of Ms. Maxwell. They had again asked to reread the transcripts of several witnesses at the trial which began on November 29.
Faced with the slowness of the deliberations, the judge of the Manhattan federal court, Alison Nathan, was worried Tuesday about the “astronomical peak” of contamination with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in New York. She threatened the 12 jurors to bring them back on the weekend and New Years weekend if they did not find a verdict beforehand.