Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert, was a deeply disfigured human being. This was a man so amoral he would allegedly wipe his arse on hand towels and leave these on the floor for “staff” to deal with.
Maxwell – politician, media tycoon and thief – was a twisted sadist, as many of his biographers have revealed: a braggart, a damaged man who “rose to riches” from nothing.
He trumpeted his love for his last-born, ninth child by naming his luxury superyacht, Lady Ghislaine, after her. The publishing magnate mysteriously drowned near Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands in 1991. It was discovered afterwards that the rotten-to-the-core businessman had stolen the pensions of the workers of the Mirror Group. Maxwell, a staunch supporter of Israel and an alleged spy, was buried in the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Daddy’s girl
It is little wonder that Ghislaine fell into the arms of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who filled the vacuum after her father’s death. It was she who greased the way for Epstein to meet members of the British and other royal families, alongside other high-flyers she had connected with at daddy’s knee. Donald Trump has been in the mix from the start.
Evidence provided by the women Ghislaine befriended and recruited to work at Epstein’s “spa” portrays her as a person as amoral as her father – and who also regarded other humans as disposable. Her active participation in some of the abuse is a matter of public record and her manipulation of those around her is legendary.
Read more: Maxwell Prosecutors Point to Money as Motive for Sex Trafficking
Female perpetrators
There is not nearly enough information on female groomers and sexual offenders, but a 2019 study by Miriam Wijkman and Edward Kleemans for the journal Crime, Law and Social Change explained there were “various offending pathways” to how women became perpetrators.
The authors noted that, traditionally, women were viewed as victims of sexual exploitation, and when they did become involved as perpetrators, it was assumed they were still victims of sexual exploitation themselves. Often a romantic relationship also existed between the exploiter and the exploited.
“Within this ‘creepy male-vulnerable woman’ image, a clear distinction is made between perpetrators and victims: a victim can never be a perpetrator, and a woman, therefore, can never be involved as a perpetrator in sexual exploitation,” they noted.
In this scheme of things, no matter how grotesque her behaviour, Ghislaine Maxwell remains a victim of abuse by her father and then later Epstein.
Read more: Challenging perceptions: The urgent need to address female sexual abuse of children
Under-reported
Based on 17 samples from 12 countries, the authors wrote that a small proportion of sexual offences reported to police was committed by women.
“In contrast, victimisation surveys indicated prevalence rates of female sexual offenders that were six times higher than official data,” they noted.
Female sexual offenders were more common among juvenile offenders than adult offenders, the study found. There were also women who had not been sexually exploited at an earlier stage of their lives who became involved for other reasons.
“These other reasons have hardly been studied, but some research exists for the wider topic of female involvement in organised crime.”
In the case of female perpetrators of drug trafficking, financial motives played a role and female perpetrators of human smuggling indicated that they “wanted to help friends”.
In general, women could be involved in various criminal activities such as the narcotics trade, human smuggling and trafficking for sexual exploitation, and they did not only fulfil supporting roles, but also more prominent ones.
Women, the study noted, were often involved in the recruitment process, and literature also indicated that they held management positions and were responsible for bookkeeping and earnings, transport to the country of destination, monitoring of prostitutes in the brothels and the forgery of passports.
Wijkman and Kleemans noted that in the Netherlands, the role of female perpetrators in human trafficking organisations from Italy, Eastern Europe and Nigeria was increasing.
Ghislaine was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in jail for child sex trafficking. US President Donald Trump has just had her moved to a less harsh prison while some sort of “immunity” is being considered.
Instead of releasing the Epstein files, Trump is trying to seal Ghislaine’s lips. She learnt from her vile father and Epstein, so she knows how to play the game. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
