Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial was billed as the moment, after years of waiting, when we would get answers.
In reality, the woman at the centre of the case revealed almost nothing, and the courtroom drama, scheduled to last six weeks, was over in three.
Maxwell did not take the stand, and her defence offered little to counter the claims of the four female victims, beyond suggesting they were motivated by money and had suffered from memory lapses.
Prosecutors kept a narrow focus on the defendant and the six charges, and redacted large sections of their documentary evidence including the names of some third parties.
Epstein’s 2009 settlement with Virginia Giuffre to be made public next week
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Maxwell’s conviction is a clear win for US law enforcement – but it follows decades of the FBI and prosecutors failing the victims whose lives have been, as one lawyer put it, “diminished and damaged”.
The trial has provoked as many questions as it answered, and it is unlikely to be the final criminal case in the Epstein saga.
What does the verdict mean for Prince…
