Epstein’s UK pals must speak out about allegations
WITH each passing week, British involvement with vile paedophile Jeffrey Epstein grows more and more. For the past five years, Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell’s friendship with the now-deceased sex offender has been well known.
But over the last couple of months, three more – all UK women – have been accused of helping to facilitate or knew of Epstein’s abuse.
They all now live back in the UK having lived or worked with Epstein in the States.
Maxwell, the daughter of crooked media tycoon Robert Maxwell, has been described in court as the American paedophile’s “madam” while numerous alleged victims have accused her in court of taking part in the abuse.
She is now being held in New York awaiting trial accused of grooming and abusing three girls 18 or under between 1994 and 1997. If found guilty, she faces up to 35 years in prison. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty and is due to face trial in New York next July.
The others accused of wrongdoing, including Prince Andrew who it is claimed by Epstein’s teen ‘sex slave’ Virginia Giuffre he slept with her, are all wanted too for questioning by US prosecutors or lawyers for the alleged victims.
Now the Duke, who along with his legal team have vehemently denied the allegations against him, has been named as one of the“powerful individuals”
Giuffre was “forced” into sleeping with.
The details come from court documents Maxwell had bitterly fought to block being made public but which have now been released.
The royal is named repeatedly in 617 newly unsealed legal papers in which he is alleged to have taken part “in an orgy with numerous other under-aged girls”.
Following their release, one alleged victim’s lawyer told me Prince Andrew must “step forward, be a man and speak the truth about what he knows” of the sex offender following the two men’s friendship.
The Prince, who has so far failed to speak with the FBI about his knowledge of the American, was accused of “hiding behind the monarchy”.
The new papers go as far as to claim he “lobbied the US government to help get a sweetheart plea-deal for paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein”.
Although the Duke’s legal team did not comment, a pal described the allegation as “a straight forward untruth, no ifs, no buts”.
Meanwhile, Maxwell is continuing to fight to stop more papers, submitted in her 2015 defamation case brought by Giuffre, from being made public. Her fight continues as it emerged the disgraced British socialite’s lawyers went to shameful lengths to discredit Giuffre’s claims she was raped as a child.
Maxwell’s attorneys accused the now 36-year-old, of making “false” rape allegations to Palm Beach police when she was a young teen.
All in all, it is a terrible injustice that all the alleged victims, whose abuse they claim dates back as far as the late 90s, have as yet not had their day in court.
But unless action is taken, it may only get worse.
The unsealing of the Maxwell documents is a positive step.
Anyone who was associated with Epstein and Maxwell should be very concerned. Increasingly so as more and more lurid claims are aired in the court of public opinion by the paedophile’s alleged victims over British involvement in the abuse.
It is unknown what, if any interaction, the three UK women who have been accused by victims of facilitating Epstein, have had with US investigators.
But they, like Prince Andrew, should get ahead of this by co-operating with investigators and doing the right thing.
Whereas in the case of tragic traffic accident victim Harry Dunn, whose alleged US killer Anne Sacoolas, fled back to the States to avoid questioning, these Brits accused of involvement should not use the Atlantic as protection.
They must come forward and give what information they have, as to stay silent only leaves them open to claims of complicity. They would be best served to remember while secrecy favours predators, transparency helps victims.