MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maxwell's legal team files for retrial after jury was probably biased

“When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” Juror Number 50 said.

Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's legal team has formally requested a retrial after details concerning the private life of one of the members of the jury who convicted her became public.

The juror's personal experiences of sexual abuse might have influenced his verdict. He has been identified by multiple media outlets by his first and middle name of Scotty David and has reportedly told several publications that he had been sexually abused as a child.

Maxwell had been found guilty of making illegal arrangements for underaged girls to engage in sexual encounters with her late friend Jeffrey Epstein and other members of his circle.

The attorneys for Maxwell filed their petition Wednesday just before the midnight deadline to formally request a new trial. The documents are sealed, which means their exact content was not available to the media.

In a letter accompanying the motion—which was not filed under seal—one of Maxwell’s lawyers, Bobbi Sternheim, asked the judge to keep all “submissions pertaining to Juror No. 50” under seal until the Court ruled on a retrial.

Lawyers for Maxwell are confident there is “a compelling basis for the Court to overturn” their client's conviction and grant a new trial based on post-trial revelations.

Maxwell, a former socialite and daughter of British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, was convicted last month on five of six counts of sex trafficking and other crimes for recruiting and grooming underaged girls for abuse by Epstein, who died aged 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August of 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from allegations made by dozens of victims.

Maxwell, 60, also faces two additional counts of perjury for lying under oath during a defamation suit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who is suing Prince Andrew in civil court as one of the minors Epstein allegedly introduced to his royal friend.

The perjury charges were separated from the sex abuse charges and the case will likely go to trial unless charges are dropped or she pleads guilty. US authorities have offered to drop the charges if her sex abuse convictions are allowed to stand to save the victims the trauma of yet another trial.

Juror Number 50 had failed to answer affirmatively when asked on jury questionnaire forms if he had been sexually abused and, if so, if it would impact his ability to be impartial. During a recent Reuters interview, he admitted he shared his own story with other jurors during deliberations as they discussed witnesses’ memories. “When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” he said.