Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Epstein butler claims: I set up massage table for the prince
THE former butler of Jeffrey Epstein believes Prince Andrew “maybe has something to hide” after the royal’s alleged refusal to speak to the FBI about his late paedophile pal.
Breaking his decades-long silence, 70-year-old Juan Alessi today implores the Duke of York to speak to US investigators after secretly meeting with teenage sex slave Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was loaned out the Prince.
In his first-ever interview, he talks candidly about the time – of which he has sworn on oath – around 19 years ago that Andrew attended naked pool parties at Epstein’s Florida “House of Sin”.
Juan even alleges he set up tables for the Prince to be massaged on.
The account puts further pressure on the Duke, who is thought to have so far refused to co-operate with an ongoing FBI investigation into the billionaire.
Epstein, 66, committed suicide last August while awaiting trial for underage sex trafficking while Andrew had to quit public duties over their friendship.
Mr Alessi began working for the Wall Street financier in 1991 and when his American boss was first arrested for underage abuse in May 2006, he was interviewed at length by investigators.
SWORN
He has been questioned by the police, FBI and victims’ lawyers about Epstein, as well as Andrew’s visits to the billionaire’s £7million Palm Beach home in Florida. Mr Alessi said: “I am an American citizen and I will do anything to help bring America justice.”
He believes the Duke, 60, should speak to investigators, including the FBI, adding: “He should. Maybe he has something to hide. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened beyond that.”
No one outside Epstein’s circle of abuse saw as much as Mr Alessi.
He swore on oath in 2009 in a civil case brought by “Jane Doe 2” against Epstein and again in a sworn affidavit in 2016 in Giuffre’s civil case for defamation against Ghislaine Maxwell that Prince Andrew was among regular guests.
He told how he set up massage tables for Andrew each day during an extended stay the Duke had in the early noughties at the paedophile’s waterfront home.
In November 2005, he gave a sworn statement to Palm Beach Police in the criminal investigation into Epstein. In it, he said the Prince “spent weeks with us” and slept in “the blue room” – the main guest bedroom.
Mr Alessi added that Andrew would have “daily massages”, saying: “We set up the tables.”
He said the house was “full” of nude pictures of young women: “You would need to be blind not to see them. Pictures of young girls, objects and ornaments were all over the house.”
He previously recalled seeing naked girls by the pool during Andrew’s stay – but he insisted they put clothes on before entering the house. Mr Alessi told the Mirror he remembers Andrew well but never witnessed him taking part in any of the sexual impropriety claimed by two women against the royal, which he vehemently denies.
Mr Alessi said: “I met Prince Andrew twice at the house. He was a complete gentleman to me. He was a nice guy. I never see him with girls. I never see him with Virginia. I never saw him naked or actually having the massage.
“If he had a massage, like I say in my deposition, everything was upstairs
I met Prince Andrew twice at the house.. he was a complete gentleman
JUAN ALESSI ON DUKE’S VISIT TO EPSTEIN’S FLORIDA HOME