Featured Image Credit: Alamy/ Police handout
Topics: Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, US News
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, US News
Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has been removed from solitary confinement.
The former socialite and partner of the late convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in July 2020 and found guilty in December 2021 of five out of the six counts she was facing, including the sex trafficking of minors.
Maxwell has remained in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.
However, she has since been taken out of solitary confinement after two years, an experience her family described as 'torture'.
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Maxwell was reportedly being kept in solitary confinement over fears she may end her own life like Epstein. The convicted sex offender was found dead in his cell while awaiting sex trafficking charges in 2019.
Maxwell's family alleged she had a camera watching her at all times and was woken up every 15 minutes with a torch.
They claimed she was being treated in a way which violated the 'Nelson Mandela rules' and complained to the United Nations.
The former socialite now shares a cell with other inmates.
She is also allowed visitors for the first time since 2020.
Maxwell's brother, Ian, told the Telegraph: "I am finally going to be able to see Ghislaine. Apart from a few seconds of snatched conversation I had with her at the bar of the court, we have not had any meaningful interactions. I will be able to do that because she has been released into the general population."
Ian previously alleged guards had been banned from speaking to Maxwell while she was in solitary confinement.
"She is still in MDC but in the general population. There are dangers in it but she has come out of being in that ‘Shu’ [segregated housing unit] and out of that torture she has suffered. She has kept her head held high and I admire her determination," he said.
Maxwell tried to have her conviction overturned and argued there were grounds for a retrial after it was discovered that one of the jurors who delivered the guilty verdict had been a victim of sexual abuse himself.
However, Justice Alison Nathan denied the motion and ruled that the 'guilty verdicts were readily supported by the extensive witness testimony and documentary evidence admitted at trial'.
Maxwell faces a combined sentenced of up to 50 years. It was reduced from 65 years after Judge Nathan ruled that the three conspiracy counts would be sentenced as one, with Maxwell subsequently being convicted on a total of three counts opposed to five.
Maxwell's sentencing is set to be held on 28 June.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org