Two women who accused Ghislaine Maxwell of helping Jeffrey Epstein rape them while they were minors have spoken out after the British socialite was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Sarah Ransome and Elizabeth Stein were among those who spoke during Maxwell's sentencing hearing on Tuesday and celebrated her incarceration after the ruling.
Outside the courthouse, Ms Ransome and Ms Stein told reporters how they felt in the wake of Maxwell's sentencing.
"This is for the girls who didn't have their statements read out, the ones who weren't here, and sadly the ones who are still not with us," Ms Ransome said.
Ms Stein said that she felt the 20 year sentence was "reasonable" considering the abuse they suffered at Maxwell and Epstein's hands.
"I feel like the judge took into account everything that she needed to take into account. She took into account the severity of what Maxwell and Epstein did to us, and I think that 20 years is reasonable considering all of that," she said. "We're happy to finally have some closure and start a new chapter in our lives, because this has encompassed the majority of our adult lives. It's time to move on."
Maxwell spoke just before she was sentenced and, for the first time publicly, condemned Epstein.
“I believe that Jeffrey Epstein was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life and fooled all of those in his orbit,” she said. "Jeff Epstein should have been here before all of you. He should have stood before you in 2005, again in 2009 and again in 2019. ... All the many times he was accused, charged and prosecuted. But today it is not about Jeffrey Epstein ultimately. To you, all the victims ... I am sorry for the pain that you experienced."
Ms Stein said it was "difficult" and "unnerving" to hear Maxwell speak.
"I don't think any of us expected her to speak, so of course it was difficult to hear her speak," she said.
Ms Ransome said that "sorry doesn't cut it."
"I wish she was sorry when was she was forcing me into a room to be raped, that's when I wish she was sorry. She should have been sorry then," she said. "To force someone into a room to be raped ... there's not enough 'sorrys' in the world."
Ms Ransome also gave a victim impact statement during the hearing in which she described the abuse she suffered at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell.
“Soon after lulling me and others into a false sense of comfort and security, they pounced, ensnaring us in their upside-down, twisted world of rape, rape and more rape,” she said. “Like Hotel California, you could check into the Epstein-Maxwell dungeon of sexual hell, but you could never leave.”
Ms Stein gave a similar victim impact statement, revealing that she had to get an abortion after she became pregnant while being trafficked by Maxwell.
She said she was "assaulted, raped and trafficked countless times in New York and Florida during a three year period."
"At one point I became pregnant (by whom I am unsure) and aborted the baby," she said. "Things happened that were so traumatizing that to this day I’m unable to speak about them; I don’t even have the vocabulary to describe them."
