Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell, The Woman Who Recruited & Groomed Underage Girls For Abuse By Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in a US prison for helping former financier Jeffrey Epstein abuse young girls. Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting and trafficking four teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein, her then-boyfriend.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. He had been awaiting his sex trafficking trial.

One of her accusers said outside the court in New York that she should stay in prison for the rest of her life. Ghislaine Maxwell's crimes occurred over a decade, between 1994 and 2004.

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Her lawyers had argued for leniency, citing a traumatic childhood and claiming that Maxwell was being unfairly punished because Epstein escaped trial.

Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?

But, who is she? Let's get to know her and her childhood.

Ghislaine Maxwell was born on Christmas Day 1961 into material abundance. She is the daughter of late British media magnate Robert Maxwell. But her childhood was dysfunctional to say the least.

Just three days after her birth, the car carrying her 15-year-old brother crashed into a lorry, leading to his immediate death. Following this, she "was hardly given a glance" by her devastated parents. However, later both parents went to the opposite extreme and began lavishing affection on Ghislaine, their youngest child.

Reviled as a bully, her father is depicted in Fall, John Preston's biography, as a "draconian father" who physically and verbally abused his children.

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Her early life

Maxwell was raised in Headington Hill Hall, a vast Italianate mansion overlooking Oxford in the UK. She was educated at Marlborough College and Oxford University, where she studied modern history and languages.

After graduating, Maxwell's father appointed her as a director at Oxford United, the football club he owned and chaired, and set her up with her own company supplying corporate gifts.

Her life as a socialite

But in the pages of local dailies' gossip column, where she was now a regular fixture, she was usually described as a "socialite" rather than a businesswoman. She began dating Count Gianfranco Cicogna, an Italian aristocrat.

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"It was obvious to me even as an undergraduate that she was interested in power and money," says the writer Anna Pasternak, a contemporary at Oxford who moved in the same social circles. "She was one of those people at parties who always looked over your shoulder to see if there was somebody more powerful or more interesting while she was air-kissing you."

Maxwell and Epstein's relationship

In 1992, Maxwell was managing Epstein's Palm Beach estate, setting the stage for her longtime management of his various properties. Maxwell appeared to have assumed the role of Epstein's procurer by 1994. She continued to work for him until a decade later, in 2004.

It is well-known that she was among Epstein's closest associates and in an "intimate relationship" with him. In court documents, former employees at the Epstein mansion in Palm Beach described her as the house manager who supervised staff, looked after finances and acted as a social co-ordinator.

Whatever the exact nature of their relationship, the prosecution portrayed their closeness as a crucial factor in their pattern of abuse - with Ghislaine Maxwell seeking out and grooming victims for Epstein.

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In December 2021, a jury found her guilty of five counts - including the most serious charge, that of sex trafficking of a minor.

Two Epstein's victims, identified as "Jane" and "Carolyn," testified that they were as young as 14 when Maxwell began grooming them.

"Ghislaine controlled the girls," Sarah Ransome, who says Epstein abused her, told the BBC's Panorama programme. "She would be the one getting all the girls in check. She knew what Jeffrey liked¡­ this was very much a joint effort."

Sentenced to 20 years

She was convicted on 29th December of sex trafficking and other counts after a month-long trial during which the government presented testimony and evidence depicting Maxwell as a sophisticated predator. He groomed vulnerable women and girls as young as 14 years old for abuse by Epstein.

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She was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday by a judge who said she played a pivotal role in facilitating a horrific scheme that spanned continents and years.

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