GHISLAINE Maxwell’s appeal against her sex trafficking convictions has been thrown out by a US court.

The 62-year-old was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to massage rooms for Prince Andrew’s paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the southern district of New York in June 2022.

On Tuesday, judges upheld her five convictions – including sex trafficking minors, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, and conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

The court said Maxwell’s sentence was “procedurally reasonable”.

Maxwell’s appeal focused on a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in southern Florida.

She said it barred her from being prosecuted in Manhattan 13 years later.

Her lawyer argued that references in the agreement to the “United States” suggested the government’s intent to bar prosecutions nationwide of “potential co-conspirators” including four named in the agreement.

Maxwell was not among them.

A prosecutor said the mention of the United States was a throwaway reference – and Epstein’s agreement was intended to bind only prosecutors in southern Florida.

Maxwell also argued that prosecutors “scapegoated” her because Epstein was dead and the public demanded that someone else be held accountable.

She said her trial was tainted because one juror didn’t disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child.

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