Born days after the horrendous accident that eventually led to the death of Robert Maxwell’s favourite son, Michael, Ghislaine Maxwell had struggled at first to win love from her grieving parents. “Mummy, I exist,” the three-year-old told Betty Maxwell, her mother, in 1965. “I was devastated,” Betty would recall, admitting that her youngest daughter had been woefully neglected.

Michael Maxwell died after spending six years in a coma following a car crash. The lingering tragedy had traumatised the Maxwell family, including Ghislaine’s six siblings. Two became permanently depressed while she became temporarily anorexic. Thereafter fussed over and totally spoilt as her father’s youngest and favourite daughter, Ghislaine was nevertheless not spared her father’s brutal rage and merciless bullying, especially at the family’s regular Sunday lunch