Socialite who introduced Duke to paedophile

IT was Ghislaine Maxwell who introduced Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein and embroiled him in a scandal that forced him to step down as a working royal.

The Queen’s second son met billionaire paedophile Epstein through his long friendship with Maxwell, the daughter of the late crooked newspaper tycoon Robert. She was Epstein’s girlfriend.

US prosecutors and Epstein’s victims allege she played a key role in helping him to befriend and groom young women, many of them underage, for him and his friends to sexually abuse.

In Andrew’s ill-fated interview with Emily Maitlis for BBC Newsnight last November, Andrew, 60, described how Oxford-educated Maxwell, 58, introduced him to Epstein.

“I met him through his girlfriend back in 1999. I’d known her since she was at university in the UK. It would be a stretch to say that we (him and Epstein) were close friends.

“We were friends because of other people. I didn’t have much time with him.”

Andrew admitted he invited Epstein to Windsor Castle and Sandringham in 2000 but said “remember that it was his girlfriend who was the key element in this. He was, as it were, the plus one”.

Andrew also denied arranging a birthday party for Maxwell at Sandringham. “No, it was a shooting weekend,” he said.

The pair were as thick as thieves, according to some witnesses. A former police officer claimed in January that she would visit him up to four times a day at Buckingham Palace and they would enjoy picnics together in the grounds.

It was in Maxwell’s house in Belgravia, central London, where Andrew was infamously photographed with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who claims she was forced by Epstein to have sex with Andrew three times. He insists he was at Pizza Express in Woking that evening and that he has no recollection of her.

He also says he never took part in or witnessed anything untoward during his friendship with either Epstein or Maxwell.

Maxwell has also denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s alleged misconduct.

Andrew said he last met Maxwell in the spring or summer of 2019 and they did not discuss Epstein. “If there are questions Ghislaine has to answer, that’s her problem, I’m afraid,” he told Newsnight.