New pressure on Andrew over fresh Maxwell charges
New criminal charges against Ghislaine Maxwell renewed pressure on Prince Andrew yesterday when it emerged they fall within the time frame that he was meeting paedophile Jeffrey epstein.
Until now, British socialite Maxwell has been charged with grooming underage girls for, and then abusing them with, epstein between 1994 and 1997 – before the Duke of York knew the former wall Street financier.
But a new indictment filed in New York this week, where Maxwell is locked up on remand awaiting trial, adds allegations relating to a victim who says she was abused between 2001 and 2004, when Andrew was in contact with epstein.
The accusations do not relate to Andrew, who is not a party in the criminal proceedings or the subject of any criminal investigation, but US authorities want to speak to him as a potential witness.
‘Should live up to his promises’
The duke said he first met epstein in 1999 and saw him ‘once or twice a year’ before ending the friendship in 2010.
Lawyers for epstein’s victims want the duke to end an 18-month deadlock and open up to the FBI about his friendship with the paedophile.
Lisa Bloom, who represents eight victims, said: ‘As this now covers the time period when [Andrew] was so friendly with Maxwell and epstein, it is all the more imperative that he live up to his promises and speak to investigators immediately about everything he knows.’
The duke has been accused of sleeping with one of epstein’s teenage ‘sex slaves’, Virginia Roberts, in 2001, allegations he has emphatically and continuously denied.
Andrew previously said: ‘At no stage during the limited time I spent with him [epstein] did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction.’
In an interview with the BBC in November 2019, he said he would cooperate with the FBI’s investigation into epstein, who killed himself that August in jail. But the two sides have hit an impasse.
The duke’s lawyers, however, said reports of his refusal to cooperate were ‘inaccurate’ and he had offered to assist the US Department of Justice ‘on at least three occasions’ last year. Maxwell, 59, now faces seven charges relating to four women, rather than three, including two of sex trafficking.
The new indictment claims that from 2001 to 2004, Maxwell trafficked a girl who she first met when she was 14 and groomed her for abuse. She allegedly interacted with the girl on ‘multiple’ occasions even though she knew she was underage.
Maxwell has denied the previous allegations but has yet to respond to the additional charges. Her brother Ian Maxwell said the new indictment ‘does not strengthen the government’s case’.