ghislaine maxwell cries bail hearing
Ghislaine Maxwell at her bail hearing
Ghislaine Maxwell cried as she was ordered held without bail Tuesday — with a Manhattan judge ruling the accused sex abuser "poses substantial actual risk of flight" after she purposely hid from authorities.

The 58-year-old British socialite and pal of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein wiped tears from her left eye several times, using the back of her left index finger, as federal Judge Alison Nathan refused to free her from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn until her trial next year.

"No combination of conditions" could ensure that Maxwell wouldn't try to flee prosecution, Nathan said during a video conference in Manhattan federal court — where Maxwell appeared on the feed remotely from a closet-size room at the jail.

"The risks are simply too great," the judge said, adding that Maxwell has exhibited an "extraordinary capacity to evade detection."

Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell, briefly hung her head when it became clear that she wasn't going to be released at all — much less to a luxury New York City hotel, as she had requested — until trial.

Dressed in an olive-brown crewneck top with her hair pulled back, Maxwell occasionally sipped from a white styrofoam cup and fidgeted in her seat during the proceeding.

She faces charges that she conspired with Epstein to sexually abuse young women.

In siding with prosecutors, Nathan said there were no conditions of bail that could ensure Maxwell's return to court, noting her "significant financial resources," foreign connections and efforts to secretly move around the country following Epstein's arrest last year.

The jurist said without a clear picture of Maxwell's finances — which prosecutors argued were purposely obscured — "it is practically impossible to set financial bail conditions that would reasonably assure her appearance in court."

Earlier in the more than two-hour procedure, Maxwell pleaded not guilty to a six-count indictment that could land her up to 35 years behind bars.

Long accused of serving as Epstein's madam, Maxwell was arrested July 2 on six counts — conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Two counts include perjury for allegedly lying during a 2016 deposition in an Epstein-related case.

Prosecutors contend she was hiding at a mansion on a 156-acre lot in a remote part of New Hampshire in order to avoid being detected by authorities. Noting her three passports and net wealth of $10 million, they said she had every incentive to flee the US.

Two of Maxwell and Epstein's alleged victims also implored the judge to remand Maxwell, including a Jane Doe who said she received a call in the middle of the night threatening the life of her 2-year-old.

"She was in charge. She egged him on," Doe said, in a statement read out loud by prosecutors.

Annie Farmer, another Epstein accuser, was on the line to tell the judge she was recruited by Maxwell when she was 16 and sexually abused by Maxwell and Epstein at his New Mexico ranch.

"She is a sexual predator who groomed and abused me," Farmer said. "She has never shown any remorse for her heinous crimes."

Farmer's lawsuit against Maxwell and Epstein's estate is pending.

Maxwell's lawyers called for her release on $5 million bond and home confinement.

"It's just not realistic," defense lawyer Mark Cohen said about keeping Maxwell incarcerated amid the coronavirus pandemic until her trial, which was scheduled for next July.

But one of her accusers, Jennifer Araoz, said in a statement after the no-bail ruling:

"I am once again able to take another breath as Ghislaine Maxwell will be in jail until at least her trial date next July.

"Knowing that she is incarcerated for the foreseeable future allows me, and my fellow survivors, to have faith that we are on the right path."