Duke of York’s alibi queried by former guard at Palace gates

Andrew’s story of how he cannot have met Epstein victim is questioned by soldier on duty that night

SCOTLAND YARD is coming under increasing pressure to release royal protection logs after a retired officer came forward to cast doubt on the Duke of York’s alibi for the night he is accused of having sex with a trafficked teenager.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims she was brought to London aged 17 by Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile financier, and coerced into sleeping with the Duke at the Kensington home of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s friend.

The Duke has vehemently denied the claims, insisting he was at home in Sunninghill Park, Berkshire, on the night of March 11 2001, having earlier taken Princess Beatrice, his daughter, to a Pizza Express in Woking.

But now a former royal protection officer, who was working at Buckingham Palace at the time, has said he believes the Duke could have been in London on the night in question.

The officer, whose identity has not been revealed, said he remembered an incident when the Duke pulled up at the Palace’s North-centre Gate in the early hours of the morning.

He said the date would have been around March 11 2001, but to be certain he would need to see the protection officer duty roster for that month.

Scotland Yard has refused to publish the logs and the officer is now looking to use Freedom of Information laws.

The former Royal Marine, who served with the Metropolitan Police for 23 years, told The Mail on Sunday: “I believe I have a right to know my own shift patterns.”

Ms Roberts Giuffre claims she had sex with the Duke three times, first in London in March 2001, a month later at

Epstein’s New York town house and a third time on the billionaire’s private Caribbean island. She claims she was coerced into having sex with the Duke at Maxwell’s mews home after they had all visited Tramp nightclub.

But the Duke has insisted he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Roberts Giuffre. In his interview with the BBC’S Emily Maitlis in November, the Duke said the night on which he was alleged to have met her he was with his children.

But the officer said he recalled an incident in early 2001 when the Duke clashed with royal protection officers at Buckingham Palace after returning home late to find the gates locked.

He said: “The reason the incident is so unusual is because firstly Prince Andrew was on the police radio in the car and secondly because he was shouting abuse through the radio

“The abuse was phrases such as, ‘open these bloody gates you buffoons, get these bloody gates open’. He was not swearing but using abusive language in a raised voice.

“I found the experience belittling. All my colleagues would have heard it, including those in the control room.”

The officer said, if the date in question was confirmed to be March 11 2001, it would dismantle the Duke’s alibi.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The ex-officer is entitled to submit his subject access request which will then be considered. We are not prepared to discuss records that we may or may not hold regarding matters of protection.”

Meanwhile, a telephone engineer who used to work on Epstein’s private island has said he believes he saw the Duke with Ms Roberts Giuffre. Steve Scully, 70, said the Duke was with a bikini-clad blonde girl when he spoke to him on the island of Little St James sometime between 2001 and 2004.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment but has previously emphatically denied that the Duke ever had any form of sexual relationship with Ms Roberts Giuffre.