Maxwell starts bid for retrial over instructions judge gave jury

CONVICTED child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has launched her bid for a retrial. Lawyers for the disgraced socialite filed a 37-page appeal at a New York court on Friday evening claiming ‘erroneous’ jury instructions made her conviction unfair.

Maxwell, 60, faces up to 65 years in jail when she is sentenced on June 28 after being found guilty in December on five charges. She was charged with recruiting and trafficking underage girls for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for at least a decade.

Jurors seemingly believed one victim – who gave her name only as Jane – who said she was abused by Epstein and Maxwell at his ranch in New Mexico when she was 16.

The appeal documents say: ‘A jury note sent during deliberations indicted that the jurors were considering convicting Ms Maxwell… based solely on the New Mexico conduct.’

Maxwell’s lawyers argue that the judge should have explained to jurors that under New Mexico law ‘Jane’ was not underage and should have instructed them to focus only on alleged sex assaults in New York where the age of consent is 18.

Maxwell remains in solitary confinement in New York.