Prosecutors in the trial had alleged that Maxwell procured girls between 1994 and 2004 for the financier Jeffrey Epstein, who would sexually abuse them. In the high-profile case, Maxwell had pleaded not guilty.

In a US court filing ahead of the trial, lawyers for Maxwell wrote that she “has always vehemently denied that she was involved in illegal or improper conduct related to Epstein”.

However, during the trial, Annie Farmer testified that Maxwell touched her breasts while giving her a massage during a visit to Epstein’s New Mexico ranch in 1996, when Farmer was 16.

On 6 December, “Kate”, testifying under a pseudonym, also alleged that Maxwell asked her to find young women for Epstein, as well as engaging in sexual contact with him during massages. She claimed that Maxwell had told her: “You know what he likes: cute, young, pretty, like you,” and said that “he needed to have sex about three times a day”.

Kate, who says she first met Maxwell when she was 17 in 1994, also recounted an event when she was around 18, when she found a “schoolgirl outfit” on her bed. She claims that when she asked Maxwell about it, she said: “I thought it would be fun for you to take Jeffrey his tea in this outfit.”

The third accuser, Carolyn (also testifying under a pseudonym), alleged that Maxwell coordinated sexualised massages with Epstein, starting when she was 14. At one point, she said, Maxwell assessed her naked body and touched her breast, saying that she “had a great body for Mr Epstein and his friends”.

Carolyn said that she’d been introduced by Virginia Giuffre – a longtime Epstein and Maxwell accuser – at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s. “Virginia asked me if I wanted to come make money,” Carolyn said in court, later testifying that Giuffre was 18 at the time.

Reports say Carolyn broke into tears when she said the money Epstein gave her was for “buying drugs”. When she was about 15 or 16, she said, she brought some friends to Epstein’s house. She stopped seeing him at 18, she said, when she was “too old”.

Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Maxwell has been found guilty of sex trafficking young girls for Jeffrey Epstein