My part in triggering Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal that could lead to a retrial
In November and December of 2021, I spent five weeks as one of only four reporters allowed in the main courtroom for the federal sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the one-time girlfriend and later assistant to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
That means I sat within a foot or two of her every day for five weeks. One day, she started sketching me on her legal notepad, alongside my press gallery colleague from The Times.
On 30 December, she was convicted on five out of six sex-trafficking charges, which resulted in her being sent to jail for 20 years.
On 12 March, Maxwell will appeal over her conviction and the high-profile case will once again hang in the balance. And one of the bases for the appeal is me.
An interview I published here in The Independent revealed that a juror had failed to disclose, when asked on a written questionnaire, if he had any experience of sexual abuse.
As a result of this interview, it was revealed that two other jurors also failed to disclose similar information to the court, which may, in certain circumstances, have disqualified them depending on the outcome of further questioning by the court and Maxwell’s lawyers.
The question Maxwell’s team wanted to know was: did they
