Profile From New York's elite to a web of sex crimes

When Ghislaine Maxwell arrived in New York City in 1991, she seemed like the perfect candidate for its elite social scene. The British daughter of UK publishing titan Robert Maxwell, she had been dispatched to launch an international magazine called the European, as part of his sprawling media conglomerate.

- Victoria Bekiempis

The Oxford-educated Maxwell cut an attractive figure: she was about 5ft 8in, with a slim frame and bold dark hair, her "defined cheeks" drawing notice. She had a polished English accent.

By the end of the year, however, her position among New York City's power players was imperilled: Robert Maxwell died in a boating accident on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, on 5 November 1991. Shortly after his death, it was revealed that £460m was missing from his businesses' pension funds.

Maxwell faced financial and social ruin, but one of her new associates, the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, stood by her side.

Three decades later, Maxwell's relationship with Epstein would come to a sordid conclusion. Following an international criminal drama that culminated in Maxwell's sex-trafficking conviction, she was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in jail for luring girls, some as young as 14, into Epstein's abusive world.