Victims allege 'cover-up' as Epstein former girlfriend moved to low security prison

The accomplice in the abuse of underage girls by high-society sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved to a minimum security facility in Texas, the United States Bureau of Prisons said, triggering an angry reaction from some of the pair's victims, Al Jazeera reported.

Maxwell, a former girlfriend of Epstein, was moved from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee - a low-security prison in Florida - to the minimum security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, the Bureau of Prisons said on Friday (local time).

"We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp [FPC] Bryan in Bryan, Texas," a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said, without providing an explanation for the transfer.

Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss the reasons for the transfer.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein - a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US - and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes, as per Al Jazeera.

Two women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell, and the family of another accuser who recently took her own life, condemned Maxwell's surprise prison transfer.

"It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received," Annie and Maria Farmer and the family of Virginia Giuffre said in a statement.

"Without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas," the victims said.

"Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency," they said. "This move smacks of a cover-up. The victims deserve better," they added, as per Al Jazeera.