GHISLAINE Maxwell spent 72 hours without taking a shower locked up in solitary confinement with glaring lights on the entire time, her lawyer has claimed.
The jailed socialite's attorney, Mark Cohen, detailed his client's apparent conditions on a video call during Tuesday's court hearing in New York City – as she faces child sex trafficking charges.
"She's not the monster that's been portrayed by the media and government," Cohen said.
He argued that preparing for trial with Maxwell in jail, particularly given the current restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, would be "just not realistic."
And Cohen added that Maxwell has been held in the "equivalent of solitary confinement" and wasn't allowed to shower for 72 hours after being transferred to the Brooklyn detention facility.
Maxwell also appeared via video link and was wearing a brown T-shirt with her hair up in a bun when she pleaded not guilty to charges related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
She was denied freedom on $5million bond to live in a "luxury" Manhattan hotel on bail, after Annie Farmer – one of her accusers – gave powerful testimony to the judge.
Judge Alison Nathan ruled that Maxwell, 58, will stay behind bars until her trial in July next year for allegedly recruiting girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
The judge determined that Maxwell will be "ordered to be detained pending trial" and set a trial date of July 12 2021 – with the government proposing blocking out three weeks for it.
Ghislaine told the Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday her plea of "not guilty your honor."
Maxwell, the daughter of late British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, is facing six criminal charges – including four related to transporting minors for illegal sexual acts and two for perjury.
She allegedly groomed Epstein's young victims to endure sexual abuse and was sometimes even there when he abused them, as per court documents.
Two Epstein accusers implored the judge to keep Maxwell detained.
As part of the government's presentation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe read aloud a statement by one female accuser while another, Annie Farmer, gave a very short statement by phone asking the court to detain Maxwell.
Farmer said Maxwell was a sexual predator who "groomed and abused me".
She said Maxwell "lied under oath and tormented her survivors".
An indictment alleged that she helped groom the victims to endure sexual abuse and was sometimes there when Epstein abused them. It also alleged that she lied during a 2016 deposition in a civil case stemming from Epstein's abuse of girls and women.
Epstein killed himself in August 2019, several weeks after he was also confronted by two accusers at a bail hearing who insisted that he should remain in jail while awaiting sex trafficking charges that alleged he abused girls at his Manhattan and Florida mansions in the early 2000s.
In court papers, Maxwells lawyers argued that Epstein's death left the media wrongly trying to substitute her for Epstein even though shed had no contact with Epstein for more than a decade, had never been charged with a crime or been found liable in any civil litigation, and has always denied any allegations of claimed misconduct.
The judge set a trial date for July 2021.
Afterward, some accusers praised the decision to keep Maxwell detained.
In a statement, Virginia Roberts Giuffre said she was thrilled.
"Without Ghislaine, Jeffrey Epstein would not have been able to fulfill his sick desires," Giuffre said.
"Ghislaine preyed on me when I was a child. As with every other of her and Jeffrey Epstein's victims, I will have to live with what she did to me for the rest of my life.
"The rest of her life should be spent behind bars."
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