The Telegraph
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘physically abused’ by a correctional officer during routine prison search
Ghislaine Maxwell was “physically assaulted” by a correctional officer during a routine prison search, her attorney claimed Tuesday. Maxwell, the former partner of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, was subsequently threatened with retaliation after saying she would report the incident, the lawyer added. Bobbi Sternheim made the charge in a letter to New York judge Alison Nathan complaining about Maxwell’s circumstances at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. “Recently, out of sight of the security camera, Ms. Maxwell was placed in her isolation cell and physically assaulted during a search,” Ms. Sternheim wrote. A week later, the same team of guards “ordered Maxwell in a shower” to clean, sanitize and scrub the walls with a broom, “the lawyer added in the letter. Maxwell’s lawyers have repeatedly complained about their client’s prison conditions in hopes of getting her out on bail. Ms. Nathan declined bail in December, considering Maxwell a flight risk. Her lawyers say she is subject to excessive surveillance, including a flashlight being pointed at her cell every 15 minutes from 9:30 PM to 6:30 AM. Maxwell is charged with recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The daughter of the late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell is on trial this summer, although this could be postponed due to the pandemic. Prosecutors also accuse the British socialite of lying in testimony she gave in 2016 in a defamation lawsuit filed against her by longtime Epstein prosecutor Virginia Giuffre. Maxwell, 59, is facing up to 35 years in prison when convicted in the criminal case, which covers alleged crimes from 1994 to 1997.