Maxwell jurors hit by chest infections

Jurors in the trial of the Maxwell brothers were sent to a hotel for an eighth night after failing to reach verdicts and being struck by illness.

Earlier the judge, Mr Justice Phillips, said that he realised several jurors were suffering from chest infections brought on by the "unhealthy atmosphere" of the jury room. He told them the court would provide them with humidifiers in order to improve the atmosphere and encouraged them to go for walks around Lincoln's Inn Fields, which adjoins the court.

So far the jury has spent 47 hours considering verdicts against Kevin Maxwell, 36, his brother Ian, 39, and Larry Trachtenberg a former financial adviser to the Maxwell empire. All deny conspiring to defraud the pension funds. Kevin alone denies a similar charge of conspiring with his father, Robert, to misuse pension fund assets.