Maxwell accuser set up Parker Bowles sting
Woman was paid by the News of the World to entrap son of Duchess of Cornwall in cocaine deal
The paper secretly recorded Tom Parker Bowles offering to obtain cocaine or other drugs for the woman
ONE of Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers set up the Duchess of Cornwall’s son in a newspaper cocaine sting, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, helped tabloid journalists to entrap Tom Parker Bowles, secretly recording him offering to buy her cocaine.
The Telegraph understands the woman was paid as much as £40,000 for her part in the undercover operation. The disclosure comes just over a week ahead of Ms Maxwell’s trial for the sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
It is unclear if the background of the accusers – including the woman who helped to set up Mr Parker Bowles – will be raised at trial. But it may, if introduced, threaten the credibility of the alleged victim over her willingness to betray an acquaintance, who happens to be the stepson of the Prince of Wales.
Another of the four accusers – who also cannot be identified – had previously been arrested for possession of cocaine and use of drug equipment, The Telegraph has been told. Jeffrey Pagliuca, Ms Maxwell’s attorney, told the presiding judge last week the defence plans to attack the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses and alleged victims, questioning why they did not come forward with allegations against Ms Maxwell until after the death of financier Jeffrey Epstein, her one-time boyfriend, as well as pointing to previous “substance abuse”.
The prosecution of Ms Maxwell, 59, accused of grooming young girls for Epstein, is likely to be one of the trials of the century.
She faces six federal charges that includes sex trafficking of a minor over allegations ranging from 1994 to 1997 and again between 2001 and 2004 of girls as young as 14. She denies the charges, which carry a potential sentence of 80 years in jail, meaning – if found guilty – she could die in prison.
The trial is due to begin on Nov 29. Mr Parker Bowles, who was only 24 at the time, was caught in the newspaper sting offering to supply cocaine to “a society girl”. The woman is one of the accusers relied upon by New York prosecutors in the case against Ms Maxwell.
The sting operation on Mr Parker Bowles caused a furore at the time it was published in 1999 and was splashed in the News of the World across five pages.
The Telegraph has established that the woman was approached by the News of the World because she knew Mr Parker Bowles at the time.
She agreed to assist the newspaper which secretly recorded Mr Parker Bowles offering to obtain cocaine or other drugs for the woman. He also told her: “I did a line with someone I found last night”, and then offered to get her “gear [cocaine] or weed”.
Mr Parker Bowles declined to comment in the story’s aftermath but a friend said at the time: “He is very sorry about all this and humbled by it”, while the Prince of Wales is said to have been “fairly cross” but offered him full support.
Mr Parker Bowles, now 46, has gone on to establish himself as one of Britain’s most successful food writers and critics.