NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein.
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The verdict announced Wednesday capped a month-long trial featuring accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14.
"A unanimous jury has found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of one of the worst imaginable – facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children – crimes that she committed with her longtime partner and co-conspirator Jeffrey Epstein," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damien Williams said. "The road to justice has been far too long, but today, justice has been done. I want to commend the bravery of the girls -- now grown women -- who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom."
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of every count except one.
She faces years in prison.
While the jury read the verdict, Maxwell stood stoic and looked at her siblings, who have been sitting behind her every day of the trial. She also did not hug her lawyers before leaving the courtroom, which is something out of the ordinary, the Associated Press reported.
It’s an end long sought by women who spent years fighting to hold Maxwell accountable for abusing them.
Her lawyers said she’s being used as a scapegoat for crimes committed by Epstein, who killed himself in 2019.
Jurors heard the testimony of four women during the trial about how when they were teens they were alleged victims of a sex-abuse scheme devised by Maxwell and Epstein.
No sentencing date has been set.