Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal against sex trafficking conviction rejected
Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal against her sex trafficking conviction has been rejected by a US court.
The 62-year-old was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to massage rooms for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the southern district of New York (SDNY) in June 2022.
On Tuesday, judges on the second circuit in the SDNY upheld her five convictions – including sex trafficking minors, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, and conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
The court also concluded Maxwell’s sentence was “procedurally reasonable”.
Her lawyers argued in March that she “should never have been prosecuted” due to a “weird” agreement drafted more than 15 years ago.
Three judges dismissed her arguments, concluding that the non-prosecution agreement drafted in Florida “does not bind” the United States Attorney’s Office for SDNY.
The judgment also dismissed Maxwell’s claims that she did not have a fair trial after it emerged one of the jurors, Scotty David, failed to disclose he had been sexually abused in his pre-trial questionnaire.
It read: “The district court … determined that Juror 50’s erroneous responses during voir dire were ‘not deliberately incorrect’ and that‘he would not have been struck for cause if he had provided accurate responses to the questionnaire’.
“In fact, as the district court noted, Maxwell did not challenge the inclusion of other jurors who disclosed past experience with sexual abuse, assault, or harassment.
“This is enough – the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Maxwell’s motion for a new trial.”
