Ghislaine Maxwell’s siblings Kevin, Isabel and Christine arrive at court once again to support ‘beloved’ sister as she’s confronted by Epstein’s victims and faces sentencing for sex-trafficking crimes
- Maxwell’s siblings united in support of their disgraced sister throughout her trial
- The disgraced socialite was found guilty of child sex trafficking in December
- Three of her siblings were pictured arriving at the Manhattan courthouse today
- Brother Ian maintains her innocence and says she has a clear conscience
- The convicted child sex trafficker faces sentencing in New York this afternoon
The siblings of convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell have returned to court to support their ‘beloved’ sister as she prepares to face sentencing for her crimes.
Maxwell’s sentencing hearing for her role in the abuse ring of sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein began today, with prosecutors seeking a sentence of at least 30 years.
The socialite, 60, was found guilty in December of recruiting and grooming girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend, between 1994 and 2004.
But her siblings united in support of their disgraced sister throughout the trial, blaming Epstein for ‘sucking her into his web’ and criticising the conditions she was subjected to behind bars for the time leading up to her trial.
The family appeared either together or individually throughout her trial and stood by her in a determined gesture of family support, despite the risk of tarnishing her own reputations by not condemning her over her relationship with Epstein.
Three of the Maxwell siblings – Isabel, Christine and Kevin – were pictured arriving at the Manhattan courthouse today ahead of the sentencing hearing.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s siblings (L-R) Isabel Maxwell, Kevin Maxwell and Christine Maxwell arrive at US District Court for the Southern District of New York on June 28, 2022, for the sentencing hearing of Ghislaine Maxwell
Convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is pictured alongisde Ghislaine Maxwell, who in December was found guilty of recruiting and grooming girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein between 1994 and 2004
Ian Maxwell meanwhile has argued his 60-year-old sister has been wronged by the US justice system and is set to spend decades behind bars because of ‘unsubstantiated allegations’.
He maintains his sister’s innocence and says she could’ve fled to France – a country which has no extradition treaty with the United States – but decided to stay in the UK and face authorities because she has a ‘clear conscience’.
Writing in the Telegraph, he said: ‘I believe her when she says that she has committed no crime whatsoever and, apart from the fact that I believe her because I know her so well, the fact of her staying convinces me even more.’
In January, Ian said he did not believe Ghislaine would ‘flip’ and help prosecutors convict others close to Epstein.
Speaking to Sky News shortly after she was convicted, he said: ‘The prosecution has said that they have never made her any offer and she has never made them any offer. I don’t think that’s going to change.
‘I don’t know what Ghislaine has to say about anyone else.
‘Her position is she did not participate or was aware of these terrible activities, so her logical position must be that’s to be continued. Therefore why is she suddenly going to start producing names or who knows what. I don’t think that’s going to happen.’
Earlier this year, Maxwell’s family expressed shock that she was denied a retrial despite revelations that a member of the jury that convicted her failed to disclose he was sexually abused as a child.
In a statement shared in April this year, the family said: ‘Our family is profoundly shocked and troubled by the denial of a retrial for our sister, Ghislaine Maxwell,’ adding: ‘The court’s ruling in this matter is as tainted as the original verdict is unsafe.’
The statement said that the issue over Juror No 50’s revelations to media outlets after the trial would be one among many issues that will be appealed to the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan.
Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell sits as the guilty verdict in her sex abuse trial is read in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S., December 29, 2021
Ian Maxwell, pictured in an interview last November, says he still believes his sister is innocent
‘Our family is optimistic about Ghislaine’s success on appeal,’ they wrote.
The verdict capped a month-long trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. As the verdict was read, Maxwell appeared to show little reaction behind a black mask.
She stood with her hands folded as the jury filed out, and glanced at her siblings as she herself was led from the courtroom, but was otherwise stoic.
She faces the likelihood of years in prison – an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold Maxwell accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse.
The defense had insisted Maxwell was a victim of a vindictive prosecution devised to deliver justice to women deprived of their main villain when Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019.
Robert Maxwell (back row, centre) pictured with his wife Betty (sat with youngest daughter Ghislaine on her knee) and seven of their eight children at home in Headington Hill Hall, Oxford. When this photo was taken Ian (5) was 11 years old, while Isabel, then 17 (4) was at grammar school with sister Christine (3), and youngest son Kevin, 8, (6) was at preparatory school. Second oldest son Philip, (1), had entered his second undergraduate yer at Balliol College, Oxford, while Anne (2) was also studying at the university, but at St Hugh’s College.
Ghislaine Maxwell in June 2019 (pictured front) with her six living siblings. Ian Maxwell, her older brother, top right, shared the photo in March 2021. A month after it was taken, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and Ghislaine went into hiding with her husband, Scott Borgerson. The siblings, L-R, are: Anne, Kevin, twins Isabel and Christine, Philip, and Ian
Commenting before the verdict was reached, a family friend said: ‘Blood is thicker than water, and that means the Maxwells stick together through thick and thin.
‘Ghislaine’s brothers and sisters regard her as their beloved little sister, and family loyalty has always run deep.
‘It is no surprise that Isabel, Kevin and Ian have offered their support in such a public fashion.
‘Obviously they had nothing to do with her relationship with Epstein, and it would have been easy to leave her to her fate – but that is not how the Maxwells operate.
‘They blame Epstein for sucking her into his web, and believe her prosecution was an attempt to make an example of her because his suicide meant he could not face justice.’
Ghislaine’s trial was just the latest chapter in the roller coaster history of her family, once headed by her crooked publishing tycoon father Robert Maxwell.
Ghislaine’s trial was just the latest chapter in the roller coaster history of her family, once headed by her crooked publishing tycoon father Robert Maxwell (Kevin, Isabel and Christine seen after the guilty verdict)
Her father who owned the Daily Mirror died aged 68 in November 1991 after he tumbled into the Atlantic from his luxury yacht Lady Ghislaine – named after his youngest daughter.
His family were left to pick up the pieces of his shattered business empire after it emerged that he had embezzled hundreds of millions of pounds from his employee pension funds.
British socialite Ghislaine, 59, and her six surviving siblings had to live in the shadow cast by the legacy of his death which is still regarded as a mystery today.
Kevin, 62, became the UK’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407 million bankruptcy order was made against him in 1992 due to his role in his bullying father’s business.
He and Ian, 65, who had assumed control of their father’s companies stood trial for their alleged part in his £460 million pension fraud.
They were acquitted in 1996 after an Old Bailey trial which cost taxpayers £12 million, although their family name was besmirched for many years.
Kevin, Isabel and Christine Maxwell walk outside the courtroom after the guilty verdict
Ghislaine’s sister Isabel and brother Kevin attended court, while brother Ian repeatedly criticised her prosecution and the conditions she had endured in custody while on remand
Isabel, 71, earned a fortune with her twin sister Christine from early dot.com technology companies, but ended up being made bankrupt by a British court in 2015.
Her personal life was also hit by tragedy in the same year when her third ‘husband’, illusionist Al Seckel, died in a suspected fall near their home in France.
The couple had reportedly wed in Malibu in 2007, but their marriage was described as unofficial due to him still being legally married to his previous wife.
Isabel described how she dealt with challenges in life in an interview in 2006, saying: ‘I have learned not to run away from bad times.
‘Personal tragedies and loss connect you to what is happening in this world…I am a survivor with an innate fire that doesn’t allow me to be destroyed.’
She also described her close bond with her siblings, revealing how she grew up ‘completely in sync with the family’ and ‘when something got to her siblings, it got to her too.’
Kevin, Christine, Isabel Maxwell, and Ian Maxwell, brothers and sisters of Ghislaine Maxwell, arrive at the court in New York on Monday
Isabel was Ghislaine’s only family member to attend every day of her trial, and she sat just yards away from her in the public gallery, waving at her in gestures of support.
She became a familiar sight walking in and out of court every day, wearing one of her trademark berets to ward off the chill of the New York winter.
Kevin was in court for several days when he sat beside Isabel, even featuring with her in artists’ impression drawings of Ghislaine in the courtroom.
He spoke to reporters outside the Manhattan court to complain about the conditions she was having to endure during the case.
Kevin claimed that she was being inadequately fed and forced to wear shackles while being taken to and from court which had left her bloodied and bruised.
Robert Maxwell with his ‘favourite’ daughter Ghislaine watching the Oxford vs Brighton football match in October 1984
Robert Maxwell pictured speaking to the press and at the Football Writers’ Association in 1990
He confirmed that he had asked the US Attorney General Merrick Garland to intervene in her case to ensure she received food and was not restrained
Kevin claimed his sister had to be shackled from when she left the Metropolitan Detention Centre until she arrived in court, and then again for her journey back.
He said: ‘She’s obliged to walk up and down stairs, in the shackles, and they hurt her.
‘She’s been bruised, she’s even bled, and you really have to ask yourself in 2021, what on earth are they doing shackling a 59-year-old woman in this way every day when she represents absolutely no threat to the community.’
He added: ‘She’s on trial for her life and she received no food on the first day, she received a boiled egg, she is lucky if it is not mouldy, she receives a couple of pieces of bread, maybe a Kraft slice and a banana or an apple.
‘That is literally everything from 6.30am until 7.30pm when she gets back to the detention centre. It is simply inadequate sustenance.
‘We don’t understand how it is possible that everybody washes their hands of that problem.’
Ghislaine’s other brother Ian was also vociferous in supporting her, and gave interviews where he maintained that she faced an unfair trial, saying: ‘My sister is not a monster’.
He claimed she had been ‘targeted’ for prosecution by US authorities who were ‘fuelled by their shame and fury’ over the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein while in custody.
Ian also hit out at her time on remand, describing it as ‘500 days of effective solitary isolation in that evil place’, adding that ‘she’s weakened, drained and hollowed out’.
Robert Maxwell who had nine children with his wife Elisabeth ‘Betty’ Meynard was known as a tyrannical and bullying father, but he doted on Ghislaine.
In a 1995 interview, Elisabeth talked of how they had recreated her husband’s childhood family who were killed in the Holocaust.
Two of Ghislaine’s siblings had their lives cut short by early deaths while she went on to enjoy a gilded jet-set lifestyle as a friend of Prince Andrew and partner of Epstein before he was exposed as a paedophile.
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