Wednesday 22 June 2022 10:23 AM Ghislaine Maxwell trying to stop victim Sarah Ransome from testifying against ... trends now

Ghislaine Maxwell is trying to prevent Sarah Ransome, a British victim of pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, from testifying against her at the heiress' sentencing hearing next week. 

Lawyers for Maxwell, 60, are trying to stop Ms Ransome from giving a victim impact statement to a Manhattan court on Tuesday when a judge will determine the length of Maxwell's jail sentence for sex-trafficking, with the prosecution pushing for 20 years.

Maxwell's legal team wrote a filing to the court saying that the alleged sexual abuse suffered by Ms Ransome falls outside of the time period for offences covered by the trial.

Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, was convicted on five out of six charges in December, including sex trafficking of a minor - the youngest victim a 14-year-old girl, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three related counts of conspiracy, and faces a maximum 65 years in jail.

Ms Ransome told The Telegraph during Maxwell's trial: 'She (Maxwell) looked at me and she walked over and she said, ''Jeffrey wants you.'' And I completely froze...she grabbed my arm and marched me into Jeffrey's room, where I was then raped.'

'When I walked out of the room she smiled with these black eyes like a great white shark. She enjoyed knowing what had happened to me.'

The disgraced socialite has been held in solitary confinement in Brooklyn's Metropolitan detention center since July 2020, where guards told her 'there was concern she could be shot by a sniper'. 

Ms Ransome is hoping to appear alongside another alleged Epstein victim, Elizabeth Stein, to address US District Judge Alison Nathan as she hands down the sentence for Maxwell's five counts of sex trafficking women and young girls for Epstein between 1994 and 2004. 

'The conduct underlying the offenses charged against Ms Maxwell ended 'in or about 2004'', Maxwell's legal team wrote to the court on Tuesday.

'To our understanding, Ms Ransome alleges that she was a victim of Epstein and Ms Maxwell from approximately October 2006 to April 2007, a full two years after the conduct in this case ended. She therefore does not qualify as a 'crime victim' under the CVRA (Crime Victims Rights Act).'

It is appealing to this technicality that Maxwell's lawyers hope to exclude Ms Ransome's testimony. Ms Stein's alleged abuse occurred in 1994 and so her testimony is exempt from this defense.