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Jeffrey Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell moved to notorious New York jail

Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to a notorious New York Jail to face charges that she recruited women and girls, one as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a court appearance in Manhattan for this coming Friday after Ms Maxwell was arrested last week in her US $1 million ($1.4 million) luxury estate in New Hampshire.

Ms Maxwell, 58, is the former girlfriend and longtime associate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail last August while awaiting sex trafficking charges.

She was arrested on Thursday in New Hampshire and had been held over the weekend at the Merrimack County Jail.

Prosecutors have accused Ms Maxwell, the daughter of the late British media magnate Robert Maxwell, of luring and grooming underage girls as young as 14 so Epstein could sexually abuse them.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

She is expected to make her first appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Friday on four criminal counts related to procuring and transporting minors for illegal sex acts and two counts of perjury.

In some cases, Maxwell herself participated in the abuse, according to an indictment unsealed last week.

Several of Epstein’s victims have described Maxwell as his chief enabler, allegedly recruiting and grooming the young women. She has denied these allegations, slamming the claims against her as ‘absolute rubbish’.

Between 1994 and 1997 Ms Maxwell allegedly groomed the girls by asking them about their lives, schools and families and taking them shopping or to the movies.

After she won their trust, the indictment alleged, she would try to normalise sexual abuse by discussing sexual topics or by undressing in front of them and being present when they undressed.

Epstein’s alleged abuse included touching their genitals, placing sex toys on their genitals and forcing girls to touch him while he masturbated.

Maxwell faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors have said she “poses an extreme risk of flight” as she has three passports, is wealthy, has friends across the world and “absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence”, they wrote in a memo.

It comes just days after British newspaper The Telegraph revealed Ms Maxwell had a private tour of Buckingham Palace organised by the Duke of York and sat on a throne, it has been reported.

The paper published a photo showing the socialite reclining in the throne beside disgraced actor Kevin Spacey in 2002.

The pair were on a private tour of the palace organised by Prince Andrew for former US president Bill Clinton.

The Telegraph said it was not thought that Epstein was on the palace tour when the picture was taken.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

-With AAP

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