THE jury in the long-running Maxwell fraud trial failed yesterday to reach a verdict in their fifth day of deliberations. They returned to spend the night in a hotel.
The seven women and five men will meet today but if they do not reach a verdict, they will adjourn until Monday.
The judge told the jurors, who have sat at the trial for the past eight months, except for a four-week Christmas holiday, that after their week of hard work, they might need a two-day break over the weekend.
"If that is your view, we can arrange for you to spend your weekend at a hotel in the country," Lord Justice Phillips said. But the jury declined his offer.
Robert Maxwell's sons, Kevin and Ian, and their father's former financial adviser, Mr Larry Trachtenberg, are charged with fraudulent use of pension fund assets to save the crumbling family empire.