Maxwell to be sentenced for sex trafficking in June

In this file photo taken on July 2, 2020 acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell during a press conference in New York City

Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced British socialite convicted of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein, will be sentenced in June, a US judge said Friday.

"The Court hereby schedules the sentencing in this matter for June 28, 2022, at 11:00 am," a court document signed by New York District judge Alison Nathan said. 

Her trial and conviction last month for assisting Epstein -- who hanged himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial -- exposed a murky world of sex trafficking among the rich and powerful.

Two of Epstein's victims said they were as young as 14 when Maxwell began grooming them and arranging for them to give massages to Epstein that ended in sexual activity.

In response, the US government offered to drop two perjury charges linked to claims Maxwell made in a 2016 deposition in a separate civil lawsuit should the sex crimes conviction stand, according to court documents dated January 10.

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