Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking conviction upheld as US judge refuses retrial

Authored by news.sky.com and submitted by h0p3ofAMBE

Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking conviction has been upheld by a US judge.

Maxwell had requested a retrial after it emerged that one of the jurors had been sexually abused but had falsely stated before the trial that he had not been.

The 60-year-old Briton was convicted in December of helping late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse teenage girls.

Read more: How Ghislaine Maxwell lured girls to be abused

Asked in pre-trial screening whether he had been a victim of sexual abuse, the juror had ticked "no", but he contradicted this in TV interviews after the trial, admitting he had been sexually abused as a child.

Juror insisted he did not lie to get on the panel

The juror told news interviews that he had talked about this during jury deliberations to show why the memories of Maxwell's accusers may not have been perfect.

He told the Reuters news agency that he did not remember being asked about his experiences with sexual abuse when he filled in the juror questionnaire, insisting he would have answered honestly.

During a hearing in March, he said he had rushed through the questionnaire and made a mistake when saying he had not been a sexual abuse victim.

He also said he did not deliberately lie to get on the panel.

Image: The juror said in the questionnaire that he had not been sexually abused

Lawyers for Maxwell would have had the juror struck from the panel if he had answered correctly, and said the false statement had denied their client a fair trial.

But prosecutors said there was no proof the juror was biased.

On Friday, in her decision, US Circuit Judge Alison Nathan said the juror - known as Juror 50 - had testified "credibly and truthfully" at last month's hearing over Maxwell's request for a re-trial.

Judge Nathan wrote: "His failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse during the jury selection process was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.

"The court further concludes that Juror 50 harboured no bias toward the defendant and could serve as a fair and impartial juror."

Read more: 'Partners in crime' - intimate pictures of Maxwell and Epstein shown in court

Maxwell's lawyers have said they will appeal her conviction but have not commented on Friday's decision.

Epstein, who counted politicians and business leaders among his friends, killed himself in a Manhattan prison cell in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Caveman_ATX on April 2nd, 2022 at 00:08 UTC »

I would be okay if they offered her one of those "club fed" prison destinations in exchange for her naming people.

Zawktulator on April 1st, 2022 at 21:49 UTC »

Should be the rest of her life unless she names all the customers

kek2015 on April 1st, 2022 at 21:45 UTC »

That's good news, but I want to know what her sentencing is going to be. These people rarely get the time that they deserve.