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Topics: Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, US News
Joe Harker
A judge has denied a motion from Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of the late Jeffrey Epstein, which would have overturned her conviction on multiple counts of sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell was convicted on five charges in December 2021 and faces up to 55 years in prison for her part in the trafficking of minors who were sexually abused by Epstein.
Per the Daily Mail, Judge Alison Nathan previously quashed Maxwell's attempts to secure a retrial and has now shut down her bid for acquittal too.
She did however combine three of Maxwell's five charges into one as they were all charges of conspiracy, so the 60-year-old will be convicted on three counts rather than five.
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Whether this will affect the length of Maxwell's sentence is unclear as each conspiracy charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. Her other two charges — transportation of minors and sex trafficking of minors — are unchanged.
The 60-year-old is due to receive her sentence on 28 June.
Maxwell's motion to overturn her conviction and push for a retrial came after the announcement from one of the jurors who delivered the guilty verdict that he had been the victim of sexual abuse and used his experiences to help inform the jury's deliberations.
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Jurors had been asked before participating in the trial whether they had been survivors of sexual abuse, and the juror had said no.
He has since apologised to the judge for withholding potentially important personal information.
While Maxwell's lawyers argued that she was being sentenced for crimes committed by Epstein, Justice Nathan decreed that the 'guilty verdicts were readily supported by the extensive witness testimony and documentary evidence admitted at trial'.
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She said: "This legal conclusion in no way calls into question the factual findings made by the jury.
"Rather, it underscores that the jury unanimously found - three times over - that the Defendant is guilty of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls for sexual abuse."
Convicted sex offender Epstein took his own life aged 66 in a federal jail a month after being arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
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