Jury resumes deliberations in Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking trial
21 December 2021, 15:34
The British socialite is accused of assisting Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual abuse of teenage girls from 1994 to 2004.
A jury has resumed deliberations in the sex-trafficking trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
The jury in Manhattan federal court went back to work in a large room where they could spread out for coronavirus safety reasons as soon as all 12 jurors arrived in the morning.
They started their deliberations late on Monday after closing arguments took most of the day, working less than an hour before going home.
They are deciding whether Maxwell, 59, assisted former financier boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual abuse of teenage girls from 1994 to 2004.
Prosecutors say she recruited and groomed the girls, making them feel that sexualized massages of Epstein were normal behaviour.
Maxwell’s lawyers say the government has used her as a scapegoat after Epstein killed himself in 2019 as he awaited a sex-trafficking trial of his own.
She has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2019.
