Jury begins deliberations in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex abuse trial
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Ghislaine Maxwell (right) is accused of recruiting and grooming four teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein (left) to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - The jury in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex abuse trial began deliberations on Monday (Dec 20) after hearing closing arguments over whether the British socialite set up teenage girls to have sexual encounters with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell, 59, is accused of recruiting and grooming four teenage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
On trial for three weeks, she has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and other crimes.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
Earlier on Monday, prosecutor Alison Moe said Maxwell was Epstein's "partner in crime".
Maxwell defence attorney Laura Menninger countered that Maxwell was an "innocent woman" being targeted by prosecutors because Epstein is no longer alive.