‘Sex slave’ vows to tell all about Andrew
LONDON — Prince Andrew flew home Sunday night from a skiing holiday in Switzerland to prepare to face fresh claims that he sexually abused a teenager who is now writing a book about her experiences.
Virginia Roberts, who claims to have been a 17-year-old “sex slave” to the prince’s former friend, Jeffrey Epstein, is also said to be considering offers to tell her story after she filed court papers claiming she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times.
Buckingham Palace has conceded that the legal case in which the claims surfaced “isn’t going to go away” and the prince is expected to discuss the matter with the Queen, who was grim-faced when she left church Sunday at Sandringham.
The Queen will give her second son her full support, but the prince knows the worst may not be over, with Scotland Yard confirming it would be dutybound to investigate Roberts’ claims if she made a formal complaint.
Fresh allegations surfaced over the weekend, including a claim that Roberts was paid more than $15,000 by Epstein, a disgraced investment tycoon and convicted sex offender, as a “reward” for sleeping with the prince in 2001, and that he had sex with her after she gave him an “erotic massage” in New York. It forced the prince into the unprecedented step of issuing a formal statement denying he had ever had sex with Roberts, now 30.
“It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts,” Buckingham Palace said. “Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”
It followed two previous statements, on Friday and Saturday, which contained more general denials that Andrew, 54, had ever had sex with a minor. At 17, Roberts was below the age of consent in Florida, where the court papers were filed.
The prince spent last week in Verbier with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, their daughter Princess Eugenie and her friend, Cressida Bonas.
Roberts has it made clear she will not be remaining silent. Speaking from her mother’s home in Colorado, she said: “There will be a time when we explain stuff, just not this time.”
The fresh claims were made in a court statement filed Dec. 30 as part of a legal battle by Epstein’s alleged victims to challenge his 2008 plea deal.