Ghislaine Maxwell, Jet-set Socialite Facing Jail For Epstein Sex Crimes

New York, July 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Jul, 2020 ) :Once a card-carrying member of the jet-set's fashionable elite, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell now faces years in prison if convicted of sex trafficking minors in collaboration with her former partner, the late Jeffrey Epstein.

The shadowy 58-year-old daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire Thursday on six criminal counts alleging she conspired with Epstein to groom teenage girls for illegal sex acts -- and sometimes actively participated.

Maxwell later appeared by video at a hearing on transferring her to New York to face the charges, which carry a potential life sentence.

Since the late 66-year-old financier's arrest last year much speculation has swirled around Maxwell, casting her as an international woman of mystery with close ties to both British royalty and US politicians.

The French-born, Oxford-educated holder of multiple passports seemingly vanished last summer after Epstein's shock death while awaiting trial, which authorities deemed a suicide.

Epstein's accusers described Maxwell as the registered sex offender's right-hand confidante, acting both as paramour and madam at the behest of the multi-millionaire's proclivities.

Together the pair allegedly crafted a sex-trafficking ring to procure young girls for Epstein, who, according to 2,000 chilling pages of court documents released just before his death, claimed a "biological" need for sex three times a day.

The plaintiffs in his case -- some poor and underage at the time of the alleged abuses in the early 2000s -- said Epstein's "recruiters" approached them outside their schools or at their workplaces.

Now prosecutors accuse Maxwell of taking girls as young as 14 under her wing in the mid-1990s, later cajoling them into offering Epstein nude massages and eventual sex acts.