The
accusation against the Duke of York is contained in a motion filed in a Florida
court this week in connection with a long-running lawsuit brought by women who
say they were exploited by Jeffrey Epstein, a multi-millionaire convicted of
soliciting sex with an underage girl after a plea deal.
The
woman, who filed the motion anonymously, alleges that between 1999 and 2002 she
was repeatedly sexually abused by Epstein who, she also alleges, loaned her out
to rich and influential men around the world.
The
document, a motion to expand an ongoing lawsuit relating to prosecutors’
handling of Epstein’s case with two new plaintiffs, alleges the woman “was
forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor” in
London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein.
Convicted
sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex
The
prince is not a named party to the legal claim, which is directed against
federal prosecutors. He has not had any opportunity to respond to the
allegations in the legal claim.
The woman
is said to have been 17 at the time, considered to be a minor in Florida.
In a 2011
Vanity Fair article, Prince
Andrew denied any sexual contact with young women associated with Epstein.
Contacted
on Thursday, Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the allegations contained
in the court document. A palace spokesperson said the royal household would
“never comment on an ongoing legal matter”.
However,
another close associate of Epstein who is also accused in the lawsuit, Alan
Dershowitz, told the Guardian that the woman’s accusations against himself were
“totally false and made up”.
The
Harvard law professor and esteemed criminal defence attorney who later advised
Epstein on how to respond to the FBI’s investigation is accused in the court
motion of having sexual relations with the woman when she was a minor and of
witnessing the abuse of other minors.
On
Thursday he told the Guardian: “There is no more strenuous denial than the one
I am giving. I never met her. I don’t know her. I have never had sex with an
underage person.”
He added:
“This person has made this up out of cloth, maliciously and knowingly in order
to extort money from Mr Epstein.”
Dershowitz,
who has occasionally written op-ed articles for the Guardian, said he could
not comment on the woman’s allegations against Prince Andrew or any other men,
but he said her claims against him were demonstrably false and challenged her
to file criminal charges against him.
“It is a
totally fabricated charge in every possible way,” he said. “It just never
happened.”
He said
he was considering taking legal action to have Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell,
the lawyers who filed the motion, disbarred for “knowingly filing … a false,
malicious and defamatory statement in a lawsuit”.
Edwards
said: “We have been informed of Mr Dershowitz’s threats of legal action and bar
proceedings … we carefully investigate all of the allegations in our pleadings
before presenting them.”
In a
statement to the Guardian through her lawyers, the woman behind the allegations
said she was being “unjustly victimised 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,” she
said. “That trend should change. I’m not going to be bullied back into
silence.”
The
Guardian is aware of the identity of the plaintiff behind the allegations, but
is respecting her wish to bring the case anonymously.
Andrew’s
close relationship with Epstein – he visited him in New York two years after
the American’s release from prison in 2009 – has long been a source of
controversy. The Daily Mail reported in 2011 that the prince had broken off
contact with the banker.
The duke
had previously been accused of meeting Epstein’s young victims and possibly
being aware of their sexual exploitation. However, this is the first time he
has been named in a court document as a participant in any sexual activity with
one of the young women allegedly trafficked by Epstein.
As the
claim has only just been lodged, and as the duke is not a named party to it, he
has not had the opportunity to formally file a defence or denial to the claims.
In 2006,
the FBI opened an investigation into allegations that Epstein had been paying
for sex with underage girls at his Palm Beach mansion for years. By the
following year federal prosecutors said they had identified 40 young women who
may have been illegally procured by Epstein.
In 2008,
however, the federal inquiry was dropped after Epstein negotiated a deal with
prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to a relatively minor state
charge relating to soliciting paid sex with a minor – a 14-year-old girl. He
served 13 months of an 18-month sentence and is now a registered sex offender.
Many of
his alleged victims have since reached out-of-court settlements with Epstein,
who was once considered among the wealthiest investment bankers in the world.
However
two of Epstein’s alleged victims, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe 1
and Jane Doe 2, have brought a lawsuit arguing that federal prosecutors
violated a victims’ rights statute by failing to consult them over Epstein’s
secret deal.
The pair
won a significant legal victory in July last year entitling them to see
previously confidential documents from the plea bargain discussions between
Epstein’s lawyers and federal prosecutors.
The court
document filed this week containing allegations against Andrew is a motion to
allow two more alleged Epstein victims, referred to as Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe
4, to join the action.
Jane Doe
3 – the woman who made the accusations against Andrew – claims her contact with
Epstein began when she was approached at the age of 15 by Ghislaine Maxwell,
the daughter of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell and a close friend of
Epstein.
The
motion alleges that Maxwell “was one of the main women whom Epstein used to
procure under-aged girls for sexual activities”. With Maxwell’s assistance, the
document alleges, Epstein converted the girl into a “sex slave”, repeatedly
abusing her in his private jet or his lavish residences in New York, New
Mexico, Florida and the US Virgin Islands.
“Epstein
also sexually trafficked the then-minor Jane Doe, making her available for sex
to politically connected and financially powerful people,” the court document
alleges. “Epstein’s purposes in ‘lending’ Jane Doe (along with other young
girls) to such powerful people were to ingratiate himself with them for
business, personal, political, and financial gain, as well as to obtain
potential blackmail information.”
The
motion alleges Maxwell was “a primary co-conspirator in his sexual abuse and
sex trafficking scheme” and alleges she also participated in the abuse.
The
document goes on to allege: “Perhaps even more important to her role in
Epstein’s sexual abuse ring, Maxwell had direct connections to other powerful
individuals with whom she could connect Epstein. For instance, one such
powerful individual Epstein forced Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with
was a member of the British royal family, Prince Andrew (aka Duke of York).”
The
document lists three locations where the woman alleges she was forced to have
sexual relations with Andrew: Maxwell’s London apartment, Epstein’s private
Caribbean island in what was allegedly “an orgy with numerous other under-aged
girls”, and an undisclosed location in New York.
Requests
made to representatives of Ghislaine Maxwell for comment had not been returned
at the time of publication, but she has previously strenuously denied any
involvement in procuring young girls for Epstein or any of his associates. In
2011 a spokesperson for Maxwell said she had never been contacted by any law
enforcement agency in connection with the allegations.
The new
motion alleges that Epstein instructed the girl “to give the prince whatever he
demanded” and also instructed her to “report back on the details of the sexual
abuse”.
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