The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell cast a spotlight on the lives of her siblings who put their own reputations on the line by showing public support for her.
Ghislaine's sister Isabel and brother Kevin attended court, while brother Ian repeatedly criticised her prosecution and the conditions she had endured in custody while on remand.
They stood by her in a determined gesture of family support, despite the risk of tarnishing her own reputations by not condemning her over her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
However, a jury of six men and six women found her guilty on five out of six charges.
The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein's palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. As the verdict was read, Maxwell appeared to show little reaction behind a black mask. She stood with her hands folded as the jury filed out, and glanced at her siblings as she herself was led from the courtroom, but was otherwise stoic.
She faces the likelihood of years in prison - an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold Maxwell accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein's teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse.
The defense had insisted Maxwell was a victim of a vindictive prosecution devised to deliver justice to women deprived of their main villain when Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019.
The legal fights involving Epstein and Maxwell are not over.
Maxwell still awaits trial on two counts of perjury.
Lawsuits involving the abuse allegations also continue, including one in which a woman not involved in the trial, Virginia Giuffre, says she was coerced into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Andrew has denied her account and that lawsuit is not expected to come to trial for many months.
Commenting ahead of the verdict, a family friend said: 'Blood is thicker than water, and that means the Maxwells stick together through thick and thin.
'Ghislaine's brothers and sisters regard her as their beloved little sister, and family loyalty has always run deep.
'It is no surprise that Isabel, Kevin and Ian have offered their support in such a public fashion.
'Obviously they had nothing to do with her relationship with Epstein, and it would have been easy to leave her to her fate – but that is not how the Maxwells operate.
'They blame Epstein for sucking her into his web, and believe her prosecution was an attempt to make an example of her because his suicide meant he could not face justice.'
Robert Maxwell (back row, centre) pictured with his wife Betty (sat with youngest daughter Ghislaine on her knee) and seven of their eight children at home in Headington Hill Hall, Oxford. When this photo was taken Ian (5) was 11 years old and attending preparatory school, while Isabel, then 17 (4) was at grammar school with their sister Christine (3), and youngest son Kevin, 8, (6) was at preparatory school. Second oldest son Philip, (1), had entered his second undergraduate yer at Balliol College, Oxford, while Anne (2) was also studying at the university, but at St Hugh's College.
Ghislaine Maxwell in June 2019 (pictured front) with her six living siblings. Ian Maxwell, her older brother, top right, shared the photo in March 2021. A month after it was taken, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and Ghislaine went into hiding with her husband, Scott Borgerson. The siblings, L-R, are: Anne, Kevin, twins Isabel and Christine, Philip, and Ian
Kevin, Christine, Isabel Maxwell, and Ian Maxwell, brothers and sisters of Ghislaine Maxwell, arrive at the court in New York on Monday
Robert Maxwell with his 'favourite' daughter Ghislaine watching the Oxford vs Brighton football match in October 1984
Ghislaine's trial was just the latest chapter in the roller coaster history of her family, once headed by her crooked publishing tycoon father Robert Maxwell.
Her father who owned the Daily Mirror died aged 68 in November 1991 after he tumbled into the Atlantic from his luxury yacht Lady Ghislaine – named after his youngest daughter.
His family were left to pick up the pieces of his shattered business empire after it emerged that he had embezzled hundreds of millions of pounds from his employee pension funds.
British socialite Ghislaine, 59, and her six surviving siblings had to live in the shadow cast by the legacy of his death which is still regarded as a mystery today.
Kevin, 62, became the UK's biggest ever bankrupt when a £407 million bankruptcy order was made against him in 1992 due to his role in his bullying father's business.
He and Ian, 65, who had assumed control of their father's companies stood trial for their alleged part in his £460 million pension fraud.
They were acquitted in 1996 after an Old Bailey trial which cost taxpayers £12 million, although their family name was besmirched for many years.
Isabel, 71, earned a fortune with her twin sister Christine from early dot.com technology companies, but ended up being made bankrupt by a British court in 2015.
Her personal life was also hit by tragedy in the same year when her third 'husband', illusionist Al Seckel, died in a suspected fall near their home in France.
The couple had reportedly wed in Malibu in 2007, but their marriage was described as unofficial due to him still being legally married to his previous wife.
Isabel described how she dealt with challenges in life in an interview in 2006, saying: 'I have learned not to run away from bad times.
'Personal tragedies and loss connect you to what is happening in this world...I am a survivor with an innate fire that doesn't allow me to be destroyed.'
She also described her close bond with her siblings, revealing how she grew up 'completely in sync with the family' and 'when something got to her siblings, it got to her too.'
Isabel was Ghislaine's only family member to attend every day of her trial, and she sat just yards away from her in the public gallery, waving at her in gestures of support.
She became a familiar sight walking in and out of court every day, wearing one of her trademark berets to ward off the chill of the New York winter.
Robert Maxwell pictured speaking to the press and at the Football Writers' Association in 1990
Kevin was in court for several days when he sat beside Isabel, even featuring with her in artists' impression drawings of Ghislaine in the courtroom.
He spoke to reporters outside the Manhattan court to complain about the conditions she was having to endure during the case.
Kevin claimed that she was being inadequately fed and forced to wear shackles while being taken to and from court which had left her bloodied and bruised.
He confirmed that he had asked the US Attorney General Merrick Garland to intervene in her case to ensure she received food and was not restrained
Kevin claimed his sister had to be shackled from when she left the Metropolitan Detention Centre until she arrived in court, and then again for her journey back.
He said: 'She's obliged to walk up and down stairs, in the shackles, and they hurt her.
'She's been bruised, she's even bled, and you really have to ask yourself in 2021, what on earth are they doing shackling a 59-year-old woman in this way every day when she represents absolutely no threat to the community.'
He added: 'She's on trial for her life and she received no food on the first day, she received a boiled egg, she is lucky if it is not mouldy, she receives a couple of pieces of bread, maybe a Kraft slice and a banana or an apple.
'That is literally everything from 6.30am until 7.30pm when she gets back to the detention centre. It is simply inadequate sustenance.
'We don't understand how it is possible that everybody washes their hands of that problem.'
Ghislaine's other brother Ian was also vociferous in supporting her, and gave interviews where he maintained that she faced an unfair trial, saying: 'My sister is not a monster'.
He claimed she had been 'targeted' for prosecution by US authorities who were 'fuelled by their shame and fury' over the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein while in custody.
Ian also hit out at her time on remand, describing it as '500 days of effective solitary isolation in that evil place', adding that 'she's weakened, drained and hollowed out'.
Robert Maxwell who had nine children with his wife Elisabeth 'Betty' Meynard was known as a tyrannical and bullying father, but he doted on Ghislaine.
In a 1995 interview, Elisabeth talked of how they had recreated her husband's childhood family who were killed in the Holocaust.
Two of Ghislaine's siblings had their lives cut short by early deaths while she went on to enjoy a gilded jet-set lifestyle as a friend of Prince Andrew and partner of Epstein before he was exposed as a paedophile.
Profiles of her brothers and sisters reveal the different lives that they have led.
Michael, the tragic first-born child who died in his 20sMichael was the first child born in 1946 after his parents married in 1945, but he died aged 23 .
He was severely injured aged 15 in a car crash when his family's driver fell asleep at the wheel on December 27, 1961, just 48 hours after the birth of Ghislaine.
Michael was left in a coma and never regained consciousness. He died eight years later.
Philip, 73, the brilliant scientist who fled to Argentina
'Poor Philip' (left in 1971) as his friends knew him, was a brilliant scientist and mathematician who won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, aged 16. He eventually fled to Argentina. It is not known where he lives, but he joined his siblings for their 2019 reunion (right)
Philip was a brilliant scientist and mathematician who won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, aged just 16.
But he so loathed his domineering father that he reportedly fled to Argentina to get 'as far away from [him] as possible'.
The pair fell out irretrievably when he married Nilda, an Argentinian woman, in 1977, against his father's wishes.
The marriage didn't last — Nilda moved out taking their daughter Marcella with her and a second marriage also failed.
Philip was last heard of living in a £65-a-week flat in North London trying to be a writer. The subject? His bullying father.
He joined the siblings for a reunion in London in 2019
Anne, ex-actress called 'ugly' by her father
Anne Maxwell, the eldest daughter, dreamed of becoming an actress before retraining as a teacher. She was bullied by her tyrant father over her looks. Pictured, in 1968 and 2019
Anne studied Italian and French at Oxford, and reportedly worked on a television series before giving up her dreams of stardom
When her fledgling acting career floundered, her father's reaction was: 'What have you and Pope John Paul II got in common? You're both ugly and you're both failed actors.'
She then trained as a Montessori teacher, married an osteopath and is now believed to be a hypnotherapist in Surrey, practising under another name.
She has kept out of the limelight since her father's death at the age of 68.
Robert Maxwell (second left) with his wife Elisabeth (second right) and children Anne and Philip outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in 1971
Isabel lost an estimated £50million that she made during the dotcom boom with her sister
Isabel was born in Maisons Laffitte, France on August 16, 1950, along with her twin sister Christine.
In 1960, her family lived at Headington Hill Hall, Oxford, where the offices for Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press were located.
Her mother stated that while all of her children
