A juror in the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell has called Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice a “predator” and described his own sexual abuse ordeal.

It has led to the argument that the 60-year-old British socialite could now lodge a claim of mistrial after Scotty David said he helped the other members of the jury see things from a victim’s point of view.

Speaking to the Independent, Scotty, who asked to be identified only by his first and middle names, said he was proud to be part of holding Maxwell accountable for her crimes, saying: “This verdict is for all the victims.

“For those who testified, for those who came forward and for those who haven’t come forward. I’m glad that Maxwell has been held accountable.

“This verdict shows that you can be found guilty no matter your status.”

Ghislaine Maxwell found guilty of recruiting underage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein

He also said he believed all four victims who testified during the three-week trial, despite Maxwell’s lawyers attempting to discredit their memory of what happened.

“They were all believable. Nothing they said felt to me like a lie,” he said.

Jury doubted accusers

Scotty said that some of the jurors initially doubted the accounts of two of her accusers, known as Jane and Carolyn, and had issues with the credibility of their testimonies.

He said their doubts about the women’s accounts prompted him to share his own experience of being sexually abused as a child.

He explained to the jury that it was normal to misremember small details of traumatic memories, which does not mean the memory itself did not occur.

“When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” the 35-year-old Manhattan resident told Reuters.

He added that coming to a unanimous verdict “wasn’t easy, to be honest.”

“I know what happened when I was sexually abused.

“I remember the colour of the carpet, the walls. Some of it can be replayed like a video,” he said, adding he explained this to the jury.

“But I can’t remember all the details, there are some things that run together.”

On the question of why the victims of Epstein and Maxwell did not come forward earlier, he revealed he also had held back and did not disclose his abuse until high school.

He said his own experience of sexual abuse helped the jury understand that it is possible the four women were telling the truth.

Legal experts have claimed that Maxwell’s lawyers could have grounds to claim a mistrial if Scotty failed to disclose his past experiences before the jury deliberations.

However, each juror took a 50-question questionnaire ahead of selection where it was asked if they were a victim of sexual abuse or a relative or friend of a victim.

‘She’s just as guilty as Epstein’

Scotty said he went into the trial firmly believing that Maxwell was “innocent until proven guilty”.

But in another interview with the Daily Mail, he said: “After all I’ve learned, she’s just as guilty as Epstein. I don’t want to call her a monster, but a predator is the right word.

“She knew what was happening. She knew what Epstein was doing and she allowed it to happen. She participated in getting these girls comfortable so that he could have his way with them.

“And, to me, them returning repeatedly for the money has nothing to do with anything because these girls were minors, and it doesn’t matter what incentivised them. It matters what happened to them.”

Scotty said he was seated in the third row of the jury box during the trial, in the back corner, and had a “perfect view” of Maxwell.

“I could literally see her [all the time],” he said. “There were times when it felt like she was staring right at me and we would lock eyes… it didn’t feel real.

‘Some people would nod off’

“She was constantly taking notes, and constantly passing post-it notes over to her attorneys especially when they were on cross-examination.”

He added: “I felt like she was watching what we were doing because there were times when some jurors, not during when the victims presented their testimony, but when certain other people presented on things that maybe they didn’t feel mattered… some people would nod off.”

Scotty also revealed jurors discussed Maxwell’s behaviour in court during deliberations.

“We did discuss that we thought she was a little standoffish and not necessarily cold, more like she was paying attention.”

He also said if Maxwell had taken the stand, like she wanted to but was advised against, “it would have shown maybe that she was a little more human”.

“Maybe if she gave her version of the story, who knows, maybe if she gave us a story of how she was manipulated… I don’t know. But then that would have been an admission I feel like of guilt.”.

Maxwell was accused of recruiting and grooming four teenagers for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004 at his various properties.

She was convicted on five of the six counts she was charged with and faces the rest of her life in prison.

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