Ghislaine Maxwell loses bid for bail for a third time

Accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was denied bail by a New York judge for the third time on Monday.

The British socialite denies charges that she recruited underage girls for her former partner, the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019.

She was denied bail in July and then again in December and remains in prison in Brooklyn awaiting a trial due to start this summer.

As part of her third bail attempt, Maxwell had offered to give up her British and French passports but Manhattan federal court judge Alison Nathan ruled she was still a flight risk.

Nathan said there were "no combination of conditions that can reasonably assure her appearance" if Maxwell was released.

The daughter of late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell is due to go on trial in July although it may be delayed due to the pandemic.

Prosecutors also accuse the British socialite of lying in testimony she gave in 2016 in a defamation case filed against her by long-time Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.

Maxwell, 59, faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted in the criminal case, which covers alleged offenses from 1994 to 1997.

Her lawyers have repeatedly complained about their client´s jail conditions in the hope of getting her released on bail.

Last month they claimed she was physically abused by a correctional officer during a routine search.