Andrew’s accuser brands him a ‘toad’
She slams duke over ‘regret’ for Newsnight interview
The woman who claims she was forced to sleep with Prince Andrew as a 17-yearold called him a ‘toad’ yesterday after it emerged he regrets not apologising to her in his BBC interview.
Virginia Roberts said the Duke of York had some ‘gall’ for the comments, adding: ‘This man is not a prince.’
Andrew has repeatedly denied Miss Roberts’s claim that he slept with her three times in 2001 at the behest of Jeffrey epstein – a paedophile and former friend of the duke.
he reiterated his innocence in a BBC Newsnight interview in November, but was roundly criticised for not saying sorry to epstein’s victims and has since been forced to withdraw from public life.
Now seven months on, a source close to the duke has given an apology to the Sunday Times – with caveats.
The friend said: ‘I don’t think he regrets the intention behind the interview, which was to clear the air for his family, the Royal Family and the institution.
‘But the fact he was unable to appropriately or sufficiently convey his sympathy for the victims of epstein is of course a source of regret.’ Miss Roberts tweeted: ‘Oh the gull [sic] of this toad – he regrets the BBC interview but not his “friendship” with epstein because it gave him “great contacts” and much more.
‘Look into the house he sold to a
‘This man is not a prince’
wealthy arms dealer. Seems his fat fingers were in a lot of pies. This man is not a prince but a facet of insidiousness who has proven to get away with it all.’
During his Newsnight interview, the duke hinted a 2001 photograph of him with his arm around Miss
Roberts might be fake. he said: ‘I have absolutely no memory of that photograph ever being taken.
‘From the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.’ Miss Roberts maintains the picture was taken in the central London house of Ghislaine Maxwell – epstein’s girlfriend.
In yesterday’s article an unnamed source close to the duke said he hoped to one day return to a public role and considered his current predicament a ‘sabbatical’ from work.
They also said he would not help the US investigation into the coconspirators of multi-millionaire
American financier epstein – who died in jail last year – unless they offered him an ‘olive branch’.
Last week it emerged that New York prosecutors had asked the British authorities to speak to Andrew under a legal treaty between the two countries.
In response Andrew’s lawyers issued a letter saying the duke had offered to co- operate three times, effectively calling the prosecutors liars. Geoffrey Berman, the top federal prosecutor in New York, hit back and accused Andrew of lying by pretending once again he was willing to help.
The home Office must now decide whether to grant the American request in what is being considered a diplomatic nightmare.