Lawyer urges UK Police to reopen Prince Andrew investigation

Exclusive – A lawyer for the victims of Prince Andrew’s disgraced billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein has demanded UK police reopen their dropped investigation into the royal.

Leading US attorney Spencer Kuvin has called on the Met to “do their duty” after the Duke of York, 63, was accused of second sexual assault and taking part in an orgy in newly unsealed court documents.

The now public papers have thrust the royal back into the scandal surrounding Epstein while extinguishing any remaining hope the royal recluse harboured of returning to public life.

Although Andrew was forced into exile after his mother, the Queen, stripped him of his titles and patronages in January 2019 over his friendship with Epsietin, a convicted paedophile and Wall Street financier, police have refused to investigate.

In October 2021, detectives announced they were taking no action after a review prompted by his sex accuser Virginia Giuffre, who had filed a civil lawsuit against the prince claiming he raped her (note: ‘rape’ was cited in her lawsuit), which he vehemently denied.

Met officers decided to drop their investigation after reviewing several documents available at the time.

But after the release of the previously unseen legal papers on Wednesday night by a New York judge that named Andrew, calls have been made for the duke to be interviewed.

American Johanna Sjoberg, 43, testified as a witness in a long-settled 2015 defamation case between Ms Giuffre, now 40, and Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell.

In May 2016, she told how when she was a 20-year-old student at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, Maxwell approached her and offered her a job as a personal assistant.

Ms Sjoberg then began working for Epstein in 2001 and was immediately forced to perform sex acts.

She then detailed how she was flown from Florida with Ms Giuffre, who was 17 at the time, to entertain Epstein at his New York townhouse.

Once at the Manhattan mansion, where Maxwell also was, she told how she met Andrew.

She then recounted how the duke at one point groped her breast after he was presented with a Spitting Image puppet of himself by his hosts.

In her testimony, Ms Sjoberg said: “I sat on Andrew’s lap, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.”

She added: “It looked like him. [Ghislaine] brought it down and presented it to [Prince Andrew], and that was a great joke because apparently it was a production from a show on BBC.”

Sjoberg claimed Maxwell, now 62, took a photo of the two women being groped but said she never saw the print.

The British socialite, who is currently serving 20 years in prison for trafficking girls for Epstein, said of the incident: “I never gave him a gift of a puppet. I am not aware of any small handheld puppet that was there. There was a puppet – not a puppet – there was a – I don’t know how would you describe it really. A caricature of that was in Jeffrey’s home.”

Asked if she had used the “caricature” to put its hand on someone’s breast, she said: “I don’t recollect. I recollect the puppet, but I don’t recollect anything around the puppet.”

On learning of the document’s release, famed US attorney Mr Spencer told the Express: “Prince Andrew still refuses to fully account for his time with Jeffrey Epstein and has failed to speak with US investigators about what he knows.”

“By failing to fully account for his time with this horrendous abuser of women and young girls, Andrew is failing in his duty to the Royal Family as well as his duty to his nation.”

“British police need to do their duty and reopen their investigation into his conduct.”

The Florida-based lawyer, who has represented numerous of Epstein’s victims, said anyone who associated with the American financier following his conviction for soliciting a minor in 2008, which Andrew did, should warrant higher scrutiny.

He added: “These people with more direct and frequent involvement with Epstein should be investigated further.

“Anyone who associated with Epstein was normalising his behaviour, especially those who socialised with him after his convictions in 2008.

“All of the individuals identified should be asked the hard questions so that they account for their time with a person who is likely one of the worst sexual predators of the century.”

Other mentions of the duke in the new papers include previous allegations that Epstein “forced Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with a member of the British Royal Family, Prince Andrew (a/k/a Duke of York)” at three locations including on the American’s private island “in an orgy with numerous other under-aged girls”.

The document claimed that Epstein instructed Jane Doe #3 to give Andrew “whatever he demanded” and that Maxwell “facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse by acting as a ‘madame’ for Epstein”.

“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,” it said.

“Maxwell facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse by acting as a ‘madame’ for Epstein, thereby assisting in internationally trafficking Jane Doe #3 (and numerous other young girls) for sexual purposes.”

Jane Doe 3 is not named in the documents and claimed the sex with Andrew happened “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).”

Ms Giuffre has claimed she had sex three times with Andrew in around 2001 when she was 17 and 18.

The age of consent in the US Virgin Islands is 18, for example, but it is lower in the UK, where it is 16. The age of consent in Florida is 18, and it is 17 in New York.

The legal documents do not say when the orgy allegedly involving the Prince took place.

Ms Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, gave written evidence in 2015 to a Florida court.

She said: “The third time I had sex with Andy was in an orgy on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands.”

“I was around 18 at the time. Epstein, Andy, approximately eight other young girls, and I had sex together. The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English”.

She added that Epstein had “laughed about the fact they couldn’t really communicate, saying that they are the ‘easiest’ girls to get along with”.

Ms Sjoberg was asked: “Do you know whether Virginia Roberts (Giuffre) is telling the truth about Ghislaine Maxwell forcing her to participate in an orgy with Prince Andrew and other underaged girls on the island?”

She replied she had no knowledge of this.

In the unsealed documents is a transcript of Maxwell’s deposition, in which she claims her friend Andrew only ever visited Epstein’s Little St John private Caribbean island once.

She added that no girls were present during the prince’s visit – only female staff, despite Giuffre’s claims the royal took part in a nine-girl orgy with her.

The transcript reads: “There were no girls on the island at all. 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.”

Maxwell also said under oath that she “did not recall” being in London with Giuffre and Andrew – despite a photograph showing the three together.

And she denied ever “at any time, at anyplace, in any moment ever asked Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) or whatever she is called now to have sex with anybody.”

Since the defamation case was settled, Maxwell has been convicted and sentenced for sex trafficking as part of a separate criminal case (LEGAL NOTE: The case did not involve Giuffre as a victim of trafficking).

Epstein was 66 when he died by jail cell suicide in August 2019 as he awaited trial for underage sex trafficking.

Last night, a spokesperson for the prince did not return calls for comment.