GHISLAINE Maxwell cited a traumatic childhood and vulnerability to Jeffrey Epstein in a plea for leniency two weeks before her scheduled court sentencing for child sex trafficking.

Her lawyers urged the judge to sentence the disgraced British socialite to less than the probation department’s recommended 20 years in a brief filed on Wednesday.

Maxwell, 60, late last year was convicted of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by the late United States financier Epstein.

A jury found her guilty on five of six counts, the most serious for sex trafficking minors.

Her sentence, slated to come down on June 28 in the Federal Court in Manhattan, can be an effective life behind bars.

“This court cannot sentence Miss Maxwell as if she is a proxy for Epstein simply because Epstein is no longer here,” wrote her lawyers.

“Miss Maxwell cannot and should not bear all the punishment for which Epstein should have been held responsible.”

The lawyers emphasised her emotional wounds, saying that “she had a difficult, traumatic childhood with an overbearing, narcissistic and demanding father”.

“It made her vulnerable to Epstein, whom she met right after her father’s death,” said the lawyers.

“It is the biggest mistake she made in her life and one that she has not and never will repeat.”

The Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, the former international jetsetter grew up in wealth and privilege as a friend to royalty.

Her circle included Britain’s Prince Andrew, ex-US president and real estate baron Donald Trump and the Clinton family.

Prosecutors in her trial said Maxwell is “the key” to Epstein’s scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he will sexually abuse them.

Epstein killed himself while awaiting his own sex crimes trial in New York in 2019.

Prince Andrew in February settled a sex abuse suit with Virginia Giuffre, who said she had been trafficked to the royal by Epstein and Maxwell. – AFP, June 17, 2022.