Analysis
Epstein court files damage Prince Andrew’s hopes
of restoring reputation
Caroline
Davies
Accusations including the groping of a woman’s breast
and underage sex are given fresh airing in documents
Thu 4 Jan
2024 14.10 GMT
The release
of court documents relating to the late child sex offender and financier
Jeffrey Epstein reduces any hopes the Duke of York had of rehabilitating his
reputation.
The
accusations against Andrew, from groping a woman’s breast in an alleged
encounter involving a puppet of the prince, to claims he had sex with an
underage Virginia Giuffre, are given fresh airing.
The
documents, the first of a tranche to be unsealed on the order of Judge Loretta
Preska, were gathered for Giuffre’s 2015 defamation case against Epstein’s
former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The socialite is said to have introduced
Andrew to the financier, and is serving 20 years in a US prison for conspiring
with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
In one
witness statement, Johanna Sjoberg claimed Andrew groped her at Epstein’s house
in New York in 2001 when she was aged 20, with Maxwell and Giuffre also
present.
Her
statement, previously partly revealed, alleges Maxwell had shown them a puppet
of Andrew. “And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and
Andrew sat on a couch. They put the puppet on Virginia’s lap and I sat on
Andrew’s lap, and they put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, and Andrew
put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo,” Sjoberg’s deposition said.
Asked about
the seating arrangements, she said: “Whether we were on a couch or a chair, I
just remember the boobs part, the hand on the boobs.”
Buckingham
Palace previously said her allegations were “categorically untrue”.
Another
filing regarding a Jane Doe #3, which is believed to be Giuffre, alleges she
was “forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor in
three separate geographical locations: in London (at Ghislaine Maxwell’s
apartment), in New York, and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin
Islands (in an orgy with numerous other underaged girls)”. Epstein instructed
her to “give the prince whatever he demanded and required Jane Doe #3 to report
back to him on the details of the sexual abuse”.
Giuffre has
alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell and forced to have sexual
intercourse at these same three locations with Andrew when aged 17, which is
underage in the US, claims Andrew has categorically denied.
The
documents also show Maxwell’s fear of being questioned over her links with
Andrew. Shortly after a civil claim had been filed against her, she wrote in an
email to her lawyer in January 2015: “I am out of my depth to understanding
defamation and other legal hazards and don’t want to end up in a lawsuit aimed
at me from anyone if I can help it. Apparently even saying Virginia is a lier
[sic] has hazard! I have never been in a suit criminal or civil and want it to
stay that way.”
She added:
“I have already suffered such a terrible and painful loss over the last few
days that I can’t even see what life after press he’ll [sic] even looks like –
statements that don’t address all just lead to more questions … what is my
relationship to Clinton? Andrew on and on.”
In her
deposition, Maxwell said she had once been on Epstein’s Caribbean island when
Andrew visited. But she said: “There were no girls on the island. No girls, no
women, other than the staff who work at the house. Girls meaning – I assume you
are asking underage – but there was nobody female outside of the cooks and the
cleaners.”
Andrew has
denied any wrongdoing, including in his settlement with Giuffre in 2022. In
that settlement he said he “regrets his association with Epstein, and commends
the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and
others”.
Buckingham
Palace declined to comment on the documents as Andrew is no longer a working
royal. In a previous statement about links to Epstein, the palace said Andrew
“deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would
condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent”.
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