Britain’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, leaves following the Royal family Christmas Day church service in Sandringham, Norfolk, eastern, England on December 25, 2012 (AFP Photo/Leon Neal)
The woman who claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew on three separate occasions says she will “not be bullied back into silence”.
The woman, who has named Prince Andrew in court papers filed in a Florida court, alleges an American billionaire loaned her to his rich and powerful friends.
Jeffrey Epstein, an investment banker and former friend of the prince, was convicted of soliciting paid sex with a minor.
The woman, referred to as Jane Doe 3 in the court papers, says she was 17 at the time of her alleged meetings with the prince, meaning she was underage according to Florida law.
In court documents she accuses Epstein, the prince, his friend the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and – among others – the leading American defence lawyer Alan Dershowitz of abusing her when she was underage.
Her lawyers, who are also representing another woman, Jane Doe 4, also told an American court that Prince Andrew had lobbied the US government over Epstein’s case.
The prince has issued a comprehensive denial of the allegations, with Buckingham Palace insisting any suggestion of underage sex on his part is “categorically untrue”.
Prince Andrew and Epstein were friends and were seen together in Central Park, New York in 2011 after the financier’s conviction, which came in the wake of an FBI investigation into his associations with underage girls, especially in Florida, where he maintains a home.
‘Totally fabricated charge’
Jane Doe 3 claims that she was groomed on behalf of Epstein by Maxwell – the daughter of disgraced newspaper owner Robert Maxwell – when she was just 15 and forced into a world of sexual abuse.
The court papers allege she was “forced to have sexual relations with… Prince [Andrew] when she was a minor 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 under-aged girls”.
Her claims were denounced yesterday as an attempt to make money by Dershowitz, who was part of O.J Simpson’s “dream team” defence and is a professor of law at Harvard.
He told the Guardian: “It is a totally fabricated charge in every possible way. It just never happened. This person has made this up out of cloth, maliciously and knowingly in order to extort money from Mr Epstein.”
However, Jane Doe 3 told the same paper that she was being “unjustly victimised” again.
“I am looking forward to vindicating my rights as an innocent victim and pursuing all available recourse,” she said.
“It appears that I am now being unjustly victimized again. These types of aggressive attacks on me are exactly the reason why sexual abuse victims typically remain silent and the reason why I did for a long time. That trend should change. I’m not going to be bullied back into silence.”
A spokesman for Prince Andrew said: “This relates to long-standing and ongoing civil proceedings in the United States, to which The Duke of York is not a party.
“As such we would not comment on the detail. However, for the avoidance of doubt, any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.”
Flown across the world to meet Prince Andrew
In 2011 Virginia Roberts, a mother-of-three living in Australia, waived her anonymity to confirm she was one of 40 women abused by Epstein, and claimed at the time that she had also been “sexually exploited by Epstein’s adult male peers including royalty”.
She said she was recruited as Epstein’s masseuse when she was just 15 and paid $200 a time for an “erotic massage” for him and his friends. She claimed she later became the billionaire’s sex slave.
She alleged that her services were offered to a number of politicians, businessmen and international statesmen.
She also met Prince Andrew. The first time was at the London house of Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the disgraced former media tycoon Robert Maxwell.
The second time was at Epstein’s grand New York townhouse and the third on Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
It was reported that she was flown across the world to be introduced to the Prince. On one of those occasions Virginia Roberts was subsequently paid $15,000. One picture, said to have been taken by Epstein during Andrew’s first encounter with the girl in March 2001, shows the Prince with his arm around her waist.
Describing what happened she said Epstein invited her to accompany him on a six-week trip. “He said we’d be going to Europe and North Africa to meet architects and interior decorators because he wanted to redo his New Mexico house. I threw my arms around him and gave him a peck on the cheek.”
They flew to Paris, then Spain, then Tangier and finally, they went to London. “After we landed, we drove straight to Ghislaine’s Maxwell’s house’ and ‘was given a small upstairs bedroom,” she said.
“The following morning, Ghislaine came in. She was chirpy and jumped on the bed saying, ‘Get up, sleepyhead. You’ve got a big day. We’ve got to go shopping. You need a dress as you’re going to dance with a Prince tonight. She said I needed to be ‘smiley’ and bubbly because he was the Queen’s son.
“Ghislaine and I went to Burberry, where she bought me a £5000 bag, and to a few other designer stores where we bought a couple of dresses, a pair of embroidered jeans and a pink singlet, perfume and make-up.
“We got back to Ghislaine’s house at around 4pm and I ran straight upstairs to shower and dress. When I went downstairs, Ghislaine and Jeffrey were in the lounge. There was a knock at the door. Ghislaine led Andrew in and we kissed each other on the cheek.
“Ghislaine served tea from a porcelain pot and biscuits. She knew Sarah Ferguson and they talked fondly about Andrew’s daughters. Then Ghislaine asked Andrew how old he thought I was and he guessed 17.
The four of them went out to dinner and on to Tramp nightclub where, she says, Andrew danced with her.
“After about an hour-and-a-half, we drove back to Ghislaine’s. All of us went upstairs and I asked Jeffrey to snap a picture of me with the Prince. I wanted something to show my Mom. Ghislaine and Jeffrey left us after that, and later Andrew left.
Her shocking account of her four years as Epstein’s personal masseuse is supported by court documents, an eyewitness, photographs and flight details of Epstein’s private jets.
She said: “Epstein had trained me to do whatever men wanted. I told myself I was special. Basically, I was training to be a prostitute for him and his friends who shared his interest in young girls.
“After about two years, he started to ask me to ‘entertain’ his friends.”
It started when Epstein called Virginia at the Palm Beach apartment he had rented for her.
“He said, ‘I’ve got a good friend and I need you to fly to the island to entertain him, massage him and make him feel how you make me feel.”
He didn’t spell out what I had to do. He didn’t have to. “He’d trained me to do whatever a man wanted. I was shocked but I told myself he was sharing me around because he trusted me and I was special. I was worried, but I would do anything to keep Jeffrey happy and to keep my place as his number one girl.”
– Daily Mail
