New York court sentenced Ghislaine Maxwell to 20 years in jail on Tuesday for assisting the late convicted tycoon Jeffrey Epstein in abusing young girls.
The former socialite, 60, will be behind bars according to the sentence imposed by a Manhattan federal court.
The Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press magnate Robert Maxwell was found guilty in the latter part of last year on five of six counts, the most heinous of which involved the sex trafficking of minors.
Her attorneys had pleaded for leniency, citing Maxwell's difficult upbringing and saying that she was being unfairly punished because Epstein was not put on trial.
While the prosecution had requested between 30 and 55 years in prison, they had sought a maximum of five years.
Judge Alison Nathan ultimately decided on the 20 as recommended by the US probation agency.
Authorities successfully demonstrated that Maxwell was "the key" to Epstein's plot to get young girls to give him massages so he could sexually assault them at her high-profile trial in late 2021.
In court, "Jane" and "Carolyn," two of Epstein's victims, said that Maxwell started grooming them when they were as young as 14 years old.
"A difficult, traumatic childhood with an overbearing, egotistical, and demanding father," according to Maxwell's attorneys, was the result of their client.
In remarks submitted earlier this month, they stated, "It rendered her vulnerable to Epstein, whom she met soon after her father's death.
While awaiting his New York sex crimes trial in 2019, money manager Epstein, age 66, committed suicide in prison.
Her lawyers argued that "Ms Maxwell cannot and should not shoulder all the penalties for which Epstein should have been held accountable."
Her crimes, which she committed between 1994 and 2004, they claimed, had been met with an "utter lack of remorse" on her part.
Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated that Ghislaine Maxwell was "held accountable for committing horrendous crimes against children" by the sentence that was given today.
No one is above the law, and it is never too late for justice, he continued, so this sentencing sends a clear message in that regard.
Following her arrest in New Hampshire in the summer of 2020, Maxwell had already spent about two years in custody.
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Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
In the 1980s, Ghislaine Maxwell was a well-known figure in London's social scene. She served as a director of Oxford United Football Club while it was under her father's control and formed a women's group that was named after the original Kit-Cat Club. She was also employed by Robert Maxwell's publication, The European.
Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of child sex trafficking and other crimes related to the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and on June 28, 2022, she was given a 20-year prison sentence.