Prince Andrew’s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is set to be thrust back into the spotlight as hundreds of files from a defamation case are to be released in the new year.
It includes allegations from Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed the Duke of York groped her breasts at Epstein’s New York mansion in March 2001.
Buckingham Palace previously said the allegations are “categorically untrue”.
On Monday, US judge Loretta Preska ruled that documents relating to more than 170 people who were associates, friends or victims of Epstein should be made public. This includes 40 documents from Ms Sjoberg.
The documents were part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who supplied Epstein with underage girls. She is currently serving a 20-year jail term for charges including sex trafficking a minor.
The individuals who are set to be named in the documents will have 14 days to appeal against the judge’s decision. As the order was signed on December 18, it means the documents could be made public from January 1 onwards.
Ms Giuffre settled her civil claim against Maxwell, but representatives of the media have since argued documents that were sealed as part of the case should be made public.
Judge Preska ordered that some individuals should be named because they had already given interviews to the media – including Ms Sjoberg.
Prince Andrew stepped down as a working member of the Royal Family in 2019 due to his association with Epstein and allegations – which he has vehemently and repeatedly denied – that he had sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was 17.
The claims came to light in Florida court documents in April 2015. They stated that Ms Giuffre was forced by Epstein to have sex with the royal when she was 17, which is under the age of consent under Florida law.
In January 2022, Prince Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages were returned to Queen Elizabeth II and he was stripped of his HRH status.
A month later, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre and made no admission of responsibility.
