The juror at the centre of Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid for a retrial incorrectly told the court he had not been a victim of sexual assault, The Telegraph understands.
The revelation increases the chance of Maxwell being granted a new trial in her sex-trafficking case, particularly if the judge finds it prejudiced the verdict.
The juror, who used the name “Scotty David”, gave a series of media interviews in which he admitted to swaying deliberations by recounting his own trauma from childhood sexual abuse.
Scotty, who spoke using his first and middle names, said he could not remember whether he revealed the information during jury selection, as was required, throwing Maxwell’s conviction into uncertainty.
A source with knowledge of the case told The Telegraph that the juror had answered “no” to the question of whether they had ever been a victim of sexual assault.
‘He did not fill the questionnaire out correctly’
“He did not fill the questionnaire out correctly, then there were several questions that should have picked up the same subject by the judge,” they said.
Judge Alison Nathan told the New York court ahead of jury selection that the parties should be assured “if a juror is going to lie and be dishonest, we will smoke that out”.
On Wednesday, it emerged Scotty had retained Todd Spodek, an attorney for a notorious “fake heiress”, after he was advised by the US government to seek legal representation.
