Ghislaine Maxwell demanded accuser’s medical records to discredit her

Ghislaine Maxwell forced her accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre to disclose her entire medical history.

Ghislaine Maxwell forced her accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre to disclose her entire medical history, including details about her mental health, in an attempt to discredit her testimony.

Lawyers for the British socialite also served writs on Apple and Microsoft to access Ms Giuffre’s emails. They may even have used “improper means” to obtain confidential information from a police report in which the alleged victim outlined claims of an unrelated sex assault when she was 14.

The tactics are laid bare in hundreds of pages of US court documents that Ms Maxwell, 58, had sought to keep secret. More documents, including “extremely personal” details about Maxwell’s sex life, are due to be unsealed by a New York court as early as Monday night. They relate to a civil defamation case brought against her by Ms Giuffre in 2015.

Ms Giuffre has claimed she was used as a “sex slave” by Ms Maxwell and her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, from the age of 17. She alleges she was made to sleep with Prince Andrew three times in 2001-2, a claim he strongly denies.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

The methods used by Ms Maxwell’s lawyers in their attempt to discredit Ms Giuffre are likely to be deployed in a forthcoming criminal case in which she is accused of grooming and trafficking minors as young as 14, as well as two counts of perjury. Ms Maxwell, who “vigorously denies” any wrongdoing, faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted.

In the earlier civil action, Ms Giuffre, who is now 36, was ordered to identify all her healthcare providers from 1999 to present and produce their medical records. Documents released last Thursday in the US show this included at least 15 doctors and hospitals and a “psychiatrist” in Australia, where Ms Giuffre now lives.

A letter granting Ms Maxwell’s lawyers access to her records states: “I understand that the medical information released by this authorisation may include information concerning treatment of physical and mental illness, alcohol/drug abuse and past medical history.” The details in the psychiatric report were redacted.

In another unsealed court filing, dated June 16, 2016, Ms Maxwell’s legal team accused Roberts Giuffre of “failing to produce emails from her iCloud and Hotmail accounts”.

The document continues: “It was not until Ms Maxwell subpoenaed records from Apple on June 8, 2016, that — two days later — plaintiff finally produced emails from the iCloud account”. A subsequent filing reveals that Ms Maxwell served a similar writ on Microsoft to confirm that her accuser had an “active” Hotmail address.

Her lawyers also appear to have obtained information from police records in Florida that detailed an alleged sex assault on Ms Giuffre when she was 14. They are said to have described the incident — which would have taken place three years before she met Maxwell and Epstein — as “false”, claiming she had “cried rape” as a girl.

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Picture: AFP

Requesting a copy of the information under disclosure rules, a lawyer for Ms Giuffre wrote: “Police reports documenting the sexual assault of children are not publicly available in Florida. Your failure to respond to these requests indicates that it is possible the police reports you relied upon ... were procured by improper means by whichever individual furnished you with them.”

The defamation action was settled in 2017 for an unknown sum, but the new disclosures from the case now threaten to heap further pressure on Maxwell and her high-profile friends, including the Duke of York.

Maxwell provided a 418-page deposition in which she gave her only full account of her dealings with Epstein. The disgraced American financier committed suicide last year while awaiting trial on numerous sex charges.

A district judge in New York has ordered the deposition to be released in full on Monday, but Ms Maxwell has sought to challenge the decision in an 11th-hour appeal. A lawyer for Ms Maxwell, Jeffrey Pagliuca, has previously argued that it contains intrusive questions about his client’s sex life.

Federal prosecutors claim Ms Maxwell committed perjury by lying under oath during the deposition in 2016.

She was asked by lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre: “Did Jeffrey Epstein have a scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages?” Maxwell replied: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The criminal charges she faces relate to 1994-97 and include allegations of abuse involving a minor at her home in central London.

The Sunday Times