British Ghislaine Maxwell convicted of sex trafficking

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On Wednesday, British Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty in New York for recruiting and grooming young girls for the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. 

Maxwell is to face the rest of her life in prison, after a 12-person jury convicted her on five of the six counts she was facing, including the charge of sex trafficking a minor.

She sat passively in the Manhattan courtroom, slowly removing her mask to take sips of water after Judge Alison Nathan read out the verdicts, which the jury reached after five days of deliberation.

Following that, Maxwell's attorney, Bobbi Sternheim, stated that her legal team was already working on an appeal and that they were "confident that she will be vindicated."

"We firmly believe in Ghislaine's innocence. Obviously, we are very disappointed with the verdict," Sternheim told reporters outside the courthouse. 

Minor sex trafficking carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. The terms for the lower charges are five or ten years. Maxwell was acquitted of one count of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.

Maxwell exited the courtroom and into detention, as she has done every day of the month-long trial. She was not restrained and will be transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

No date was set for her sentencing.

It is worth noting that the charges against Maxwell stemmed from 1994 to 2004.

'I would never do that to myself'

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell on August 10, 2019; however, his death remains questioned by many. 

According to the documents, Epstein told psychologists that he was too "coward" to commit suicide. Yet two weeks afterward, the pedophile was found dead by hanging at the Metropolitan correctional center in August 2019. 

"I have no interest in killing myself," Epstein told a psychologist working for the jail. On the contrary, Epstein told the therapist that he was living "a wonderful life" even when he was in jail, saying that he would not be able to tolerate the pain of suicide if he were to commit it. 

“I would never do that to myself,” Epstein said.