The telegraph
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘physically abused’ by correctional officer during routine prison search
Ghislaine Maxwell was “physically abused” by a correctional officer during a routine prison search, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Maxwell, the former partner of US financier Jeffrey Epstein, was threatened with retaliation after saying he would report the incident, the lawyer added. Bobbi Sternheim made the allegation in a letter to New York judge Alison Nathan complaining about Maxwell’s conditions 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 abused during a search,” wrote Sternheim. A week later, the same team of guards “ordered” Maxwell to bathe “to clean, sanitize and scrub the walls with a broom,” added the lawyer in the letter. Maxwell’s lawyers have repeatedly complained about his client’s conditions of detention, hoping to release her on bail. Ms. Nathan most recently denied bail in December, considering Maxwell a risk of escape. Her lawyers say she is subjected to excessive surveillance, including a flashlight aimed at her cell every 15 minutes, from 9:30 pm to 6:30 am. Maxwell is accused of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell’s daughter is due to go on trial this summer, although she could be delayed due to the pandemic. Prosecutors also accuse the British socialite of lying in her 2016 testimony in a libel case filed against her by Epstein’s longtime accuser, Virginia Giuffre. Maxwell, 59, faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted in the criminal case, which covers alleged crimes from 1994 to 1997.