Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother claims grounds for mistrial after alleging ‘certain members’ of the jury lied

Ian Maxwell believes his sister’s appeal will be successful after what he claimed was ‘self-admitted’ jury misconduct

Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother has claimed certain jury members “lied” during a pre-trial survey for his sister’s sex-trafficking trial.

Ian Maxwell, 66, also revealed his sister fears she could be murdered in prison and that the family were blindsided by her secret marriage to Scott Borgerson, in a wide-ranging interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Last week, Maxwell’s attorneys formally requested that her sex-trafficking convictions be dismissed after claiming the juror known as Scotty David failed to disclose he had been sexually abused as a child in a pre-trial questionnaire.

Ian Maxwell attending his sister Ghislaine’s sex-trafficking trial in New York (EPA)

Scotty David first revealed to the The Independent that he was sexually abused as a child and shared personal details with other jury members during deliberations. He claimed that this helped other jurors find the victims’ testimony believable. His juror questionnaire remains under seal, so it remains unclear how he answered the questions on the form.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking and other crimes for recruiting and grooming teenage girls to have sexual encounters with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

She is due to be sentenced on 28 June and faces up to 65 years in prison.

Mr Maxwell told La Repubblica there were “very heavy grounds” for his sister’s appeal to be successful after what he claimed was “self-admitted” jury misconduct.

Should the convictions be set aside, he claimed a second jury could reach a not guilty verdict as all of the evidence against her was “circumstantial”.

“The idea that she could be in prison for the rest of her life is grotesque,” he said.

“Obviously, if you have a second opportunity to do this trial again, then there’s a hope that Ghislaine could come free eventually from this nightmare. However long it takes: one year, 18 months, two years.”

Maxwell was convicted of five sex trafficking charges in late December (Reuters)

He said Maxwell was “tremendously shocked” at the verdict but was not suicidal, and was being treated inhumanely by continuing to have a light shone in her eyes every 15-minute throughout the night.

He hadn’t spoken to her since the verdicts were reached in late December, but she was in touch with her lawyers up to six times a day, he said.

Ian Maxwell also revealed his sister feared she could be murdered in prison, and maintains that Epstein’s death was not by suicide, as authorities have ruled.

“It follows that if someone could kill Epstein, they could kill her. Why not?” Mr Maxwell said.

Mr Maxwell attended some days of his sister’s trial, along with her brother Robert and twin sisters Christine and Isabel.

He spoke to her in French during the brief moments they were allowed to see each other so that the US Marshalls couldn’t understand what they were talking about, he said. She appeared to have lost a lot of weight, he said.

EXCLUSIVE. Ian Maxwell: all about my sister Ghislaine and the tragedies of the Maxwell dynasty

An interview with the brother of the former British socialite jailed in New York after Epstein, what she thinks now, and the whole story of an uncommon familyhttps://t.co/8udNbxFWgr

— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) January 26, 2022

Mr Maxwell also shared the last photograph of the seven surviving Maxwell siblings taken at Ghislaine’s London home, where an infamous photograph of Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre was shot in 2001.

It was taken soon after their mother Elizabeth’s death and three weeks before Epstein was arrested in 2019.

Maxwell “disappeared soon after that day” until she was arrested in Manchester by the Sea at the home of her husband Scott Borgerson in July 2020.

Recalling her arrest, Mr Maxwell said the rest of the family had no idea she had secretly married the tech entrepreneur.

“They were happy and so on. But they had kept their marriage secret for whatever reason. That’s their decision,” he told La Repubblica.