A juror in Ghislaine Maxwell's child-sex-trafficking trial said he shared his own experience as a survivor of sexual abuse with other jurors.
Juror Scotty David told The Independent's Lucia Osborne-Crowley that the experience helped the other 11 jurors believe the four women who testified against Maxwell, leading them to return a guilty verdict against her.
"I know what happened when I was sexually abused. I remember the color of the carpet, the walls. Some of it can be replayed like a video," David, who identified himself using his first and middle name, told The Independent, adding: "But I can't remember all the details, there are some things that run together."
Maxwell was convicted last week of five of the six charges brought against her, for sex-trafficking girls with Jeffrey Epstein and sexually abusing them herself.
Over the course of the trial, Maxwell's attorneys sought to discredit the four women who testified against her by pointing to some discrepancies in how they told their stories in earlier media interviews and lawsuits. Her attorneys also brought Elizabeth Loftus, a decorated expert in memory psychology, to testify about how memories can be manipulated.
David said he wasn't surprised that some accusers didn't remember some of the finer details of their abuse, which is a common phenomenon among sexual abuse victims. He also wasn't surprised that some of the victims didn't disclose their experiences to other people until later in life.
"I didn't disclose my abuse until I was in high school," he told the Independent.
David added that the jury room went silent when he shared his story.
"This verdict shows that you can be found guilty no matter your status," he said.
Three of the women who testified against Maxwell were considered victims in the charges. A fourth was not, possibly because she was of legal age in the United Kingdom at the time that Maxwell allegedly facilitated sex between her and Epstein, but offered corroboration to the other accusers' stories.
"The pattern is that Ghislaine talks to you like she is also a teenager. Then it moves into massage. She tries to make you comfortable, to see what they can get away with," David told the Independent. "What she did was wrong."