Witness to testify ‘she saw Andrew dancing with girl’

Shukri Walker’s testimony would contradict Prince Andrew’s claim that he was never at the nightclub.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell in Maxwell’s London house in 2001. Picture: US Dictrict Attorney via AFP

A woman who says she saw the Duke of York dancing with a “very young girl” at the Tramp nightclub in London is willing to serve as a witness in the sexual assault case being brought against him by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, her lawyer has indicated.

Shukri Walker’s testimony would contradict Prince Andrew’s claim that he was never at the nightclub, lawyers for Ms Giuffre said last week as they made a formal request to interview her. She was also expected to contradict the duke’s assertion that he had never met Giuffre, they said.

Ms Giuffre, 38, claims that she was brought to London by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and forced to have sex with the duke. She has said that on the night in question, in March 2001, they took her out for dinner and then to Tramp, before taking her and the duke back to Maxwell’s home in Belgravia.

Andrew, 61, has denied the claims. In a 2019 interview on the BBC he said that he had gone to a Pizza Express in Surrey with Princess Beatrice that afternoon and had then spent the evening at home with his children.

Weeks after the interview was broadcast, American lawyer Lisa Bloom held a press conference in New York announcing that she had been contacted by a woman who said she had seen Andrew at Tramp at about the time of Giuffre’s allegations.

Ms Bloom said the witness had been incensed by the duke’s denials. She said she recalled seeing him because she had accidentally trodden on the duke’s toe and apologised to him, Ms Bloom said. The witness said she had seen Maxwell and Epstein at the club too, Bloom said. The lawyer added that the witness would identify the young girl the duke was dancing with as Ms Giuffre. The witness was subsequently identified as Ms Walker, who lives in London.

Ms Bloom said Ms Walker “is willing to do the deposition Virginia Ms Giuffre’s team is seeking”. She said her client “has bravely stepped forward as a witness and encourages others who may have information to do so as well”.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in a US court last month.

Buckingham Palace said last week that Andrew would return his military associations and patronages.

● The name of a horse race run at York racecourse is to be distanced from Andrew. The Duke of York Stakes was first run in 1895 and named in honour of Prince George, Duke of York, who became George V.

York Racecourse said: “We are going to explore how we can make the name a lot clearer about its history – and that the name refers to an entirely different Duke of York.”

The Times