MAXWELL GETS 20 YEARS IN JAIL FOR ‘HEINOUS’ CRIMES

Brazen Maxwell: I was a victim as well

- Christopher Bucktin

AN UNREPENTANT Ghislaine Maxwell shamelessly claimed she was a victim as a judge jailed her for 20 years for “heinous and predatory” child trafficking crimes.

The disgraced socialite, who lured vulnerable teenagers for Jeffrey Epstein, said meeting the billionaire paedophile was “the biggest regret of my life”.

Some of the 60-year-old's victims were in court for the sentencing.

Judge Alison Nathan said she had taken into account Maxwell’s “lack of remorse” and the fact that she did not “accept responsibility” and adding that “the damage done to these girls is incalculable”.

Maxwell was convicted late last year on five of six sexual abuse counts, the most serious for sex trafficking minors.

After hearing statements from traumatised victims, she said: “It is hard for me to address the court after listening to the pain and anguish expressed in the statements made here.

“The terrible impact on the lives of so many women is difficult to hear and even more difficult to absorb, both in its scale and in its extent.

“I want to acknowledge their suffering. I empathise deeply with all of the victims in this case.”

The friend of Prince Andrew told the courtroom in New York: “I acknowledge with that I have been a victim of helping Jeffrey Epstein commit these crimes.

“I believe that Jeffrey Epstein was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compart mentalised life and fooled all of those in his orbit.