After six days of intense deliberation, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five counts of sex trafficking minors and is now looking at a sentence of up to 65 years. The 60-year-old was the former girlfriend of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a long time associate of Prince Andrew.
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Close association
The Prince is currently going through his own legal battle against Virginia Giuffre, another one of Epstein’s victims that has accused the royal of sexual abuse on three accounts. Now that the verdict is out on Maxwell, lawyers believe that it could spell a whole lot of trouble for the Queen’s son. Lisa Bloom, an LA-based attorney that represented eight women who were exploited in Maxwell and Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, told Daily Mail:
He should be quaking in his boots.
Because this shows that a jury is willing to come back with a guilty verdict even if the accusers are not perfect, as no human being is.
During Maxwell’s trial, Prince Andrew was seldom brought up and according to the BBC, there was no mention of the royal participating in any of the illegal sexual activities while he was with the two sex criminals. However, Bloom believes that the fact that the prince admitted that he had a close relationship with Maxwell is damaging enough. She said:
I mean, he said it himself in the interview that he gave that he was actually closer to Ghislaine. And she is now a convicted sex trafficker. So that just brings us one step closer to Prince Andrew
Lawsuit against the Prince
On 4 January, the court will be deciding whether or not to take Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Prince Andrew to trial. His legal team has been digging through all sorts of loopholes to have the case dismissed since it was first served.
As reported by CNN, they’re currently arguing that Giuffre is not a Colorado resident and hence the ‘US court handling the civil lawsuit does not have jurisdiction over the case.’ The team stated in a motion filed in the US District Court in Manhattan:
Ms. Giuffre alleges she is a citizen of the State of Colorado, the evidence demonstrates that she is actually domiciled in Australia, where she has lived for all but two of the past nineteen years.
Bloom believes that Prince Andrew is trying to do everything he can to stop Giuffre from going to court. She said:
If he's innocent, he should want a trial where he would be exonerated, and yet he's doing everything he can to fight it.
