The Times - UK (2020-07-31)

the times | Friday July 31 2020 2GM 15

News

When Ghislaine Maxwell appeared at

a video-link court hearing from jail, her

lawyer complained that she was being

“kept alone in her room with the lights

on all the time” and had been denied a

shower for three days.

Now a few of her fellow inmates have

offered another perspective. They say

that Ms Maxwell has a floor of the pris-

on “to herself” and gets an extra hour of

exercise time every day, according to

the New York Daily News. “We are all

criminal defendants and should all be

treated the same,” said one, who said

she had seen her jogging in an exercise

space that had been cleared of other in-

mates. “I don’t mind Ms Maxwell get-

ting three hours of rec [recreation], but

then we all should get three hours.”

Ms Maxwell, 58, a daughter of the

press baron Robert Maxwell, faces

accusations of grooming under-age

girls for her former boyfriend Jeffrey

Epstein between 1994 and 1997.

She has pleaded not guilty and is being

held at the Metropolitan Detention

Center in Brooklyn until her trial next

year. She is being housed on an other-

wise empty floor of the prison, accord-

ing to one anonymous inmate.

“The only time we were allowed on

the floor Ms Maxwell has to herself is

when they sent us to clean it and polish

the floor for her,” the inmate told the

paper. “We had to polish it three times

so that it would be ready for her.” Two

defence lawyers with clients in the jail

told the paper that Ms Maxwell was

monitored 24 hours a day and was regu-

larly moved from cell to cell.

Cameron Lindsay, who was warden

of the detention centre between 2007

and 2009, said yesterday: “I would con-

jecture that the Bureau of Prisons has

made some type of special recreation

schedule for her because she’s under in-

tense scrutiny, if I understand correctly,

100 per cent of the time. I do believe she

needs that. They have got to make sure

that she can’t harm herself.”

Ms Maxwell has been fighting the re-

lease of court papers from a civil suit

filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of

Epstein’s victims, that was settled in

2017, which her lawyers say contains

“intimate information about her per-

sonal life” and allegations against

others. Last night her lawyers protested

that the documents would identify

these people. Judge Loretta Preska said

she did not “share these concerns” and

admonished Ms Maxwell for making

last-minute requests for changes. “The

court is troubled — but not surprised —

that Ms Maxwell has yet again sought

to muddy the waters as the clock ticks

closer to midnight,” the judge said, or-

dering that the documents be released.

Maxwell has entire floor of prison all to herself, say inmates

Will Pavia New York

A former Conservative minister has

had his divorce settlement made public

after a judge ruled that his behaviour

made it a matter of public interest.

Richard Harrington, 62, was accused

of being evasive during the court case

when asked how an extension to the

Metropolitan tube line in London

would affect land in which he had an in-

terest. Mr Harrington had conceded

that the value of his investment near

the line would actually be “likely to

benefit” only after being asked a third

time.

The property developer, who was MP

for Watford until the last general elect-

ion, had argued that details of the divi-

sion of his £20 million marital assets

A

researcher

claims to

have found

the site of the

Battle of

Arsuf, the great but

ultimately pyrrhic

victory by Richard the

Lionheart over the

Muslim sultan Saladin in

the Third Crusade

(Richard Spencer

writes).

The battle is known to

have been fought in the

coastal plain north of

the modern-day Israeli

city of Tel Aviv, as King

Richard’s forces, fresh

from taking the port of

Acre, drove south to

Jaffa and Jerusalem.

Rafael Lewis, of Haifa

University,

reconstructed the

geography of the area

using contemporary

descriptions and other

records, and pinpointed

a field on the fringes of

the modern city of

Herzliya. A preliminary

scan of the site has so

far turned up

arrowheads and other

metal objects of the

right date. In a twist,

they were buried under

a far greater number of

First World War bullets

and shrapnel. The site

turned out to be

identical to that of a

victory by the British

general Edmund Allenby

over retreating Turkish

forces in September

1918.

“It is a common

phenomenon in the

Levant that historical

events such as battles

from different periods

are fought on the same

fields,” Mr Lewis notes

in his report, published

by Tel Aviv

University.

The Battle

of Arsuf was

fought on

September

7, 1191.

Four years

before,

Saladin had

recaptured

Jerusalem

and held it for

the Muslims for

the first time in a

century. The Third

Crusade was the

fractious coalition of

English, French and

German forces.

As a result of the

victory, Richard was

able to move south and

take Jaffa, and prepare

the way to march on

Jerusalem. By the time

he arrived before the

holy city’s gates nine

months later, his men

were tired and

reduced in

numbers by

defections.

He

decided

that Jer-

usalem

could

not be

both taken

and held,

and turned

back.

Mr Lewis says the

battle was manipulated

by Saladin to encourage

Richard to occupy the

coastal plain and move

to Jaffa, rather than turn

directly to Jerusalem.

Dig puts Richard’s

victory on the map

Lionheart’s worthy rival

Richard the Lionheart and

Saladin were the most

celebrated rivals of the

Crusades, both held in

high regard even today

across the Middle East.

Saladin — Salaheddin

Yusuf ibn Ayyub in full —

was the founder of the

Ayyubid dynasty, a

general who united the

warring Muslim factions

of the Levant into a

powerful force to take on

the Crusader armies.

He did not just retake

Jerusalem; he expanded a

small kingdom in Syria to

include Egypt, the

Arabian peninsula, and

Upper Mesopotamia,

before his death in 1193.

Richard I of England

was less successful. He

broke the English

treasury to pay for the

Third Crusade, which he

was forced to abandon

after failing to take

Jerusalem when he heard

claims that his brother

John was plotting with

the King of France against

him. Richard was killed

fighting the French in

1199. Despite numerous
      tales, Richard and Saladin
      never met.

Archaeologists say that the Battle of Arsuf against Saladin was fought on a coastal plain

north of Tel Aviv. They have found arrowheads dated to the period of the Third Crusade

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should remain secret. Mr Harrington

was also a minister for business, work

and pensions, the Home Office and

international development during his

nine years at Westminster.

His former wife, Jessie, 61, had called

for publication of the decision, saying

that transparency was in the public in-

terest as Mr Harrington was a public

figure. She argued that “given the way”

Mr Harrington had “conducted his in-

terests” the findings were of legitimate

public interest.

Mr Harrington, while still an MP, had

conceded that he was “likely” to need to

have a conversation with the registrar

about the Register of Members’ Inter-

ests. The judge, who sat in private at the

Central Family Court in London, said

that this might have accounted for his

“hesitation”. The Harringtons married

in 1982 and separated in late 2013. Mr

Harrington had said assets should be

divided equally but his former

wife wanted 53 per cent. Judge Anne

Hudd ruled that the split should be

50-50.

The judge said: “Given the issues that

arose within these proceedings and the

findings that I made about some as-

pects of [Mr Harrington’s] behaviour

and shortcomings in his disclosure, I

am satisfied that this is a case in which

publication of my judgment would be in

the public interest.

“There is a clear public interest in

knowing that public figures are subject

to the same treatment as other citizens

— and although he is no longer in

public office he was at the relevant time

of my decision and throughout

the substantive financial remedy

proceedings.”

She said Mr Harrington had “gener-

ated substantial wealth”, mostly in

property in the UK and abroad.

Mr Harrington said the “starting

point” in “financial remedy proceed-

ings” was that the contents of a judg-

ment would usually be private because

people involved had an “onerous and

extensive duty” to provide “full and

frank disclosure” of financial informa-

tion. The former minister argued that

there was “no sufficient public interest”

to displace his expectation of privacy

and that there was “no general debate

of public interest” relating to his time as

an MP.

In a statement after the judgment

was published, Mr Harrington said:

“From the start of the divorce proceed-

ings, which began after a separation of

many years, I believed it right that our

assets should be split 50-50.

“This was what I offered at the outset.

After two years of considerable and un-

necessary expense, this was exactly

what the judge ruled.

“Contrary to claims made, all my dis-

closures to the court were full and frank

to the very best of my knowledge.”

Ex-MP fails to keep divorce deal secret

David Brown Richard

Harrington, 62,

said his disclosures

in divorce dispute

were full and frank