GHISLAINE Maxwell's pleas for bail have been rejected for the sixth time ahead of her trial on sex trafficking charges.
The 59-year-old – who prosecutors allege served as paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's madam – is desperate to be released from jail in the lead-up to her court case.
But judges have ruled yet again that she must stay behind bars – despite her claims that she's being treated like "Hannibal Lecter".
The defendant, who is accused of helping to find teenage girls for billionaire financier Epstein to abuse, denies sex trafficking charges.
Her lawyers argue her jail conditions are fit only for fictional serial killer Lecter, and say her continued imprisonment is “untenable and unreasonable”.
A motion filed in April this year alleges Maxwell has been subject to "invasive searches".
She is served "inedible" food and her water is often cloudy, they say.
It's also claimed she was forced to crawl on her hands and knees to get into a prison van.
Lawyer David Oscar Markus told the court earlier this year: "Though she is a model prisoner who poses no danger to society and has done literally nothing to prompt 'special' treatment, she is kept in isolation – conditions fitting for Hannibal Lecter but not a 59-year-old woman who poses no threat to anyone.
"She is subjected to multiple invasive searches every day.
"Her every movement is captured on multiple video cameras.
'TREATED LIKE HANNIBAL LECTER'
"She is deprived of any real sleep by having a flashlight pointed into her cell every 15 minutes."
His colleague Bobbi Sternheim said in a letter: "Many of the officers are openly hostile toward her and have mentioned having read the press and seen various television shows which amplify their hostility."
Meanwhile, brother Ian, 65, says Maxwell is being made to look like a monster.
He called her detention an “abuse of human rights”.
But District Judge Alison Nathan has promised in her ruling this week that Maxwell would be taken from her jail cell to her trial "in a way that is humane, proper, and consistent with security protocols".
The defendant has repeatedly been denied bail over concerns she may flee, it's reported.
She was arrested in July 2020 and has maintained her innocence ever since.
Her detention means she has spent longer behind bars awaiting trial than Epstein, who was found hanged in his New York prison cell in 2019.
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