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Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers may seek sentencing delay after socialite placed on 'suicide watch'

Maxwell's sentencing date could be postponed - Reuters
Maxwell's sentencing date could be postponed - Reuters

Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team say they may request a delay in her sentencing this week after she was placed on suicide watch.

In a late-night letter to the judge due to sentence the British heiress on Tuesday, attorney Bobbi Sternheim wrote that Maxwell was removed on Friday from the general population of inmates at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center and placed in solitary confinement.

Ms Sternheim said that Maxwell has not been allowed any pen or paper and was placed on the watch “without justification,” and warned that she may seek a postponement of her sentencing date.

She claims Maxwell, 60, was given a “suicide smock,” despite a psychologist meeting with the socialite on Saturday and concluded that she “is not suicidal".

“If Ms Maxwell remains on suicide watch, is prohibited from reviewing legal materials prior to sentencing, becomes sleep deprived, and is denied sufficient time to meet with and confer with counsel, we will be formally moving on Monday for an adjournment,” Ms Sternheim said in a letter late on Saturday to US Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, who is presiding over the case.

Prosecutors said Maxwell continued to have access to counsel and legal documents and that sentencing should go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday.

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein - AFP
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein - AFP

Maxwell was convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan in December on five counts, including sex-trafficking of a minor. It was a verdict that was hailed as long-delayed justice for victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell a month after his arrest in what authorities said was a suicide.

Since her arrest in July 2020, the daughter of wealthy British newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell has been held at the notorious MDC.

The Telegraph understands that two of her family members - brother Ian and sister Isabel have in recent months been denied access to visit her, meaning she has not been able to receive family at the jail for nearly two years.

The Bureau of Prisons placed her on suicide watch a week after she was arrest. Guards at the high-security facility kept checking up on her every 15 minutes during the night, shining a torch into her cell.

Ian Maxwell likened the conditions to torture.

After her trial in December, Maxwell was moved to the prison’s general population but had recently been the target of a “credible” death threat from a fellow female inmate who told at least three others that she had been offered money to murder Maxwell and that she planned to strangle her in her sleep.

In its final report, the probation department recommended the 20-year prison term, which would be a slight downward departure from what sentencing guidelines would otherwise call for.

The prosecution is seeking as much as 55 years in prison, while Maxwell’s team will make a request for just five.

Also on Saturday, the impact statements of several of Maxwell’s alleged victims were released ahead of the June 28 sentencing.

Maxwell is trying to prevent a British victim of Epstein's from testifying against her.

Ms Ransome, 37, who was born in Johannesburg to British parents, alleges she was sexually abused of Epstein’s private Virgin Island in 2006. She claims Maxwell, 60, was aware of the abuse, and in one case, she says, Maxwell forced her into a room where Epstein raped her.

“I have been coping with the daily all-consuming fear that someday Epstein and Maxwell would harm me, my loved ones and my family, as Epstein repeatedly told me would happen, if I ever dared to leave,” she wrote.

“I frequently experience flashbacks and wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares reliving the awful experience.”

Ms Ransome, who is planning to travel from England to New York for the sentencing, went on:
“Maxwell is today the same woman I met almost 20 years ago – incapable of compassion or common human decency. Because of her wealth, social status, and connections, she believes herself beyond reproach and above the law,” she wrote.

“Sentencing her to the rest of her life in prison will not change her, but it will give other survivors and I a slight sense of justice and help us as we continue to work to recover from the sex-trafficking hell she perpetrated.”