A US choose refused to throw out Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction, regardless of a juror’s failure to reveal earlier than the trial started that he’d been a sufferer of childhood sexual abuse.
Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in December of serving to the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse a number of teenage ladies.
US Decide Alison J Nathan declined to order a brand new trial weeks after questioning the juror beneath oath in a New York courtroom about why he didn't disclose his private historical past as an abuse survivor on a questionnaire in the course of the jury choice course of.
The juror had stated he “skimmed manner too quick” by the questionnaire and didn't deliberately give the incorrect reply to a query about intercourse abuse.
“I didn’t lie to be able to get on this jury,” he stated.
In her opinion, Nathan stated the juror’s failure to reveal his prior sexual abuse in the course of the jury choice course of was extremely unlucky, however not deliberate.
The choose additionally concluded the juror “harboured no bias towards the defendant and will function a good and neutral juror.”
Maxwell's legal professionals had stated they probably may have objected to the person’s presence on the jury on the grounds that he won't be honest to an individual accused of the same crime.
The US legal professional’s workplace declined to remark.
Messages have been left with Maxwell’s attorneys.