[imagesource: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images]

The battle continues between those who would prefer Ghislaine Maxwell stay behind bars and those who would like to see her out of prison.

To date, her family and lawyers have been working hard to secure her release, consistently hitting out at the conditions under which she is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC) in New York, along with her treatment by guards.

Federal prosecutors say that there is nothing out of the ordinary in Maxwell’s treatment at the detention centre. They also suggested that some of the discomforts that she’s alleging could be easily avoided if she did basic things like flush her toilet regularly and tidy her cell.

The latest involves a photo, released by her legal team, of Maxwell with a bruised eye.

Over to Sky News:

The 59-year-old British socialite, who has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she recruited teenage girls for ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, said she did not know where the bruise came from – but it may be due to her using a sock or towel to shield her eyes.

Lawyer Bobbi Sternheim says that the guards shine a light into her prison cell every 15 minutes or so, to check that she hasn’t tried to kill herself.

Image: Sky News

The image accompanied a letter to the district court judge overseeing the case in which Sternheim claims that guards at the detention centre have threatened to move her to “separate housing” if she doesn’t come clean about where the bruise came from.

“While Ms Maxwell is unaware of the cause of the bruise, as reported to medical and psych staff, she has grown increasingly reluctant to report information to the guards for fear of retaliation, discipline, and punitive chores.”

Judge Alison J Nathan says that confirmation needs to be provided that she’s being subjected to “flashlight surveillance”, and whether or not she can be provided with some sort of “appropriate eye covering”.

Maxwell has been in custody since her arrest in July last year.

She is due to go on trial later this year and will face child sex trafficking charges, among others.

[source:skynews]