The prince, the Hollywood star and the billionaire paedophile

REVELATIONS about Kevin Spacey’s tour of Buckingham Palace with Prince Andrew will again throw the spotlight on the Duke of York’s judgment and friendships.

Spacey, 58, and the duke were both friends of US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, a paedophile jailed for trying to hire a 14-year-old girl as a prostitute. Andrew, 57, quit as a trade envoy in 2011 after the friendship was revealed.

In January 2015 the duke denied claims by a US woman, Virginia Roberts, now 33, that she was forced to have sex with him and a number of Epstein’s friends when she was 17 in 2001. In April 2015, US Judge Kenneth Marra ordered that her claims against the duke – made when she tried to join a lawsuit against Epstein – be ‘struck from the record’.

She claimed the tycoon introduced her to the jet-set world of the powerful, rich and famous.

Flight logs revealed that in September 2002 Epstein flew Spacey, former US president Bill Clinton and actor Chris Tucker to Africa in his Boeing 727. The plane, dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’, reportedly included a double bed and hosted orgies.