Allison Mack sentencing – live: Smallville star jailed for three years for NXIVM role as she slams Raniere – The Independent

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who handed Allison Mack with a three year sentence for role in NXIVM, told the actress he believed her apology was sincere, but said she deserved a serious sentence for becoming “a willing and proactive ally” of the group’s leader, Keith Raniere.

Under advisory sentencing guidelines, the 38-year-old could have faced between 14 and 17.5 years in jail for recruiting women to NXIVM, but her lawyers had asked for no jail sentence, and federal prosecutors had acknowledged that a reduced sentenced was possible because of her collaboration with investigations.

“I made choices I will forever regret,” said Allison Mack, the former star of “Smallville” for her role in the NXIVM cult before she was sentenced.

As reported by the Associated Press, the 38-year-old told the judge at Brooklyn Federal Courthouse she was filled with “remorse and guilt.”

Allison Mack, who has been sentenced to three years in prison for her role in the NXIVM cult, tearfully apologised to her victims and her family in court, calling her actions “abusive, abhorrent and illegal”.

She admitted in her guilty plea before the hearing that she coerced two unnamed women into doing work for the group by threatening to release damaging information about them.

Leaders of the cult, including Ms Mack, were said to have kept women on starvation diets, branded them with initials, and in some cases ordered them to have sex with the now-jailed leader, Raniere.

Her lawyers had asked for the “Smallville” actress to face no jail time, but she was instead handed a sentence of three years in prison.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in prison for her role in the sex cult, a judge ruled on Wednesday in Brooklyn.

The Independent’s Clemence Michallon has more here:

Allison Mack was once known as Chloe Sullivan on Smallville.

She is believed to have become involved in NXIVM in 2006.

Mack can be seen in the HBO documentary The Vow meeting Keith Raniere for the first time at a volleyball game.

Read more about that meeting and the actor’s itinerary in the story below:

NXIVM (pronounced ‘Nex-E-Um’) had been operating for nearly two decades as a self-help group for Hollywood actors and the wealthy before it was uncovered as a cult that physically and emotionally abused women.

Victims were referred to as “slaves” by NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, who operated the group until his arrest in 2018, when it was exposed.

While he was known as “The Vanguard” within NXIVM, Allison Mack was allegedly a “master” who encouraged women to join the group, which she described as an initiative of female self empowerment.

In interviews with survivors, it was revealed that women were asked to hand over compromising material so Raniere so he could blackmail them into belonging to the group, or sex cult.

As well sexual acts, victims of NXIVM were humiliated, insulated and branded with Raniere’s initials, it is alleged.

He was sentenced to 120 years in prison last year. Ms Mack, meanwhile, has cooperated with federal investigators and argues that she is reformed. She has also pleaded guilty ahead of sentencing.

Jessica Joan, an actress who joined NXIVM, has said although there was “an aspect of forgiveness” towards Allison Mack for her role in the sex cult, there was a need for “accountability by her”.

“I want to tell her my truth. I want to let her know all of the pain and suffering that she caused,” Ms Joan told CNN. “I believe the judge will give a sentence that will bring justice.”

A woman who left NXVIM after she was allegedly asked to have sex with the organisation’s leader, Keith Raniere, has said she will be addressing the court at Ms Mack’s sentencing.

The woman, CNN reported, said she hopes Ms Mack is not handed a reduced sentence by the judge.

The 38-year-old was pictured walking into the Brooklyn federal court where she will be sentenced for her role in the NXIVM sex cult on Wednesday.

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis is set to deliver the sentence, which lawyers for Ms Mack have said should avoid jail time. Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, acknowledge that her sentence should be reduced in recognition of her cooperation in the case.

She faces charges of sex trafficking and manipulating women into joining the NXIVM, where they were forced to be “slaves” for its jailed leader, Keith Raniere.

“She cannot undo what has been done, and she will have to live with the regret for the rest of her life,” wrote lawyers for Allison Mack wrote in a court memo, in which they appealed for her to avoid jail time.

They continued: “Ms Mack still holds the potential to be valuable to society – as a family member, as a friend, as a helper to those in need and as a cautionary tale.”

The star of TV series “Smallville” was said to have forced women to hand over compromising materials as a form of blackmail members into complying with the NXIVM sex cult, led by Keith Raniere, as Reuters reported.

Federal prosecutors have not requested a specific sentence, but have said it should be less than the 14 years called for by federal guidelines in light of her “substantial assistance” in the investigation of NXIVM and Raniere.

Ms Mack has pleaded guilty.