Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for helping the sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, in what a judge called a "horrific scheme" that inflicted "incalculable" harm on victims.

The British socialite, 60, was convicted in December of five charges, including sex trafficking a minor, for recruiting and grooming four girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein between 1994 and 2004.

Speaking at her sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court before learning the sentence, Maxwell called Epstein a "manipulative, cunning and controlling man" who fooled everyone in his orbit.

(Cover: Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, during a news conference in New York, on July 2, 2020. /CFP)