QUEEN SHOWS SUPPORT FOR SON.
Allegations swirl over Andrew’s link to Epstein
WASHINGTON • The Queen showed her support for her son Prince Andrew Sunday as he was plunged into a further round of damaging allegations following the apparent suicide of his former friend, the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
She chose to sit beside Andrew, the Duke of York, in a car, accompanied by his daughter Princess Beatrice, on the way to church at Balmoral, Scotland. All three could be seen smiling inside the vehicle.
The monarch’s intervention came as prosecutors in New York said they were continuing to investigate a “conspiracy” of sex trafficking minors, and their attention turned to living associates of Epstein. The Duke was braced for the release of further court documents in coming weeks.
Adam Citron, a former New York prosecutor, told The Daily Telegraph the prosecutors would “absolutely” want to speak to Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s British former girlfriend, as witnesses as they built up a picture of Epstein’s world.
He said: “The case against Epstein is kaput. He’s dead. But they’re looking at a conspiracy, so you can still look at person X, Y, or Z. With all that’s going on it would be political suicide for them not to speak to everyone.
He added: “I’d assume Prince Andrew would want to co-operate if they ask. And I’m sure he’ll have good lawyers, and they’ll talk to the prosecutors’ back channel.”
Virginia Giuffre, 36, who has claimed to have been Epstein’s teenage “sex slave,” alleged in court documents that she had sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17. The allegations about the Duke were struck from the court record in 2015 after being described as “immaterial and impertinent” by a judge. The Duke has always denied the allegations and any involvement.
The New York Post reported that Maxwell was already “co-operating with federal authorities,” but the report could not be verified. Maxwell’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
Epstein died the day after the release of around 1,200 previously secret documents from a civil case in which Giuffre had sued Maxwell for defamation. In the documents, Prince Andrew was alleged to have touched the breast of a young woman, Johanna Sjoberg, then 21, while at Epstein’s home.