US court allegations remind British public of Andrew’s Epstein friendship
Prince Andrew faces pressure for a new investigation after the latest tranche of 2015 Jeffrey Epstein court documents were unsealed.
Prince Andrew faces further scrutiny of his association with the sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein after being named 76 times in recently released United States court transcripts, including an accusation he denies that he participated in an orgy.
The documents relate to a 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Giuffre against Epstein’s procurer Ghislaine Maxwell – the same year that Ms Giuffre publicly claimed Epstein trafficked her to Andrew on three occasions.
In early 2022 Perth-based Ms Giuffre, now 40, separately received a multimillion dollar settlement in a civil case against Andrew, with no admission of wrongdoing, and he gave up all royal patronages shortly afterwards.
The testimony in the unsealing of the eight-year-old court documents has largely resurrected known details of the sordid saga, but the resurfacing of Epstein’s crimes and accusations against Andrew continues to trouble the royal family.
British anti-monarchist group Republic on Thursday filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Police saying they had failed to conduct a serious investigation into the accusations against Andrew.
Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, called on the Met Police to reopen an investigation and demanded King Charles make a statement about the issue.
The latest tranche of court documents that have been unsealed reveals how Ms Giuffre hand-wrote three pages of notes about her interactions with Prince Andrew for a journalist in 2011, and that the original of the infamous photo of Andrew with his arm around her waist was in a box of items sent to a relative’s home in Bass Hill in Sydney.
The transcript also shows that one witness was asked if she believed Ms Giuffre was telling the truth about Ghislaine Maxwell forcing her to participate in an orgy with Prince Andrew and five other under-aged girls on the island, believed to refer to Epstein’s property, Little St James Island.
The witness said they had no knowledge of the claim.
Andrew has denied all of the allegations and has disputed a photograph which appears to show him with his arm around Ms Giuffre at the London home of Ms Maxwell, as having been manipulated.
Andrew, 63, who is the Duke of York, has struggled to find a meaningful role after stepping down as a working royal and relinquishing his patronages and charity work in November 2019.
But close associates believe he still harbours ambitions to take back royal duties, something that the heir to the throne Prince William firmly rejects.
King Charles III however, is more vulnerable to his brother’s persistent urgings.
He not only allowed Andrew to stay in the extensive house Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate, after earlier asking him to leave, but permitted Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson to attend the royal walk to church on Christmas morning.
However the public have not warmed to Andrew’s sense of entitlement after his car-crash television interview when he said he had no regrets about his connections with Epstein because they were actually very useful.
The legal regurgitation of at best, Andrew’s misplaced friendship with Epstein, continues to remind everyone of the main accusations he has denied.
The court files mention Andrew in connection with an incident where is he accused of groping a girl’s breast at Epstein’s home; that he participated in an orgy with underage girls and that he had sex with a girl, back then identified as Jane Doe #3 on three occasions. The papers say Jane Doe #3 was “forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor” in London, New York and Epstein’s private island.
It adds: “Epstein instructed Jane Doe #3 that she was to give the prince whatever he demanded and required Jane Doe #3 to report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse’’.
Ms Giuffre has claimed Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Andrew on three occasions.
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