ANDREW: NO, I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT GIRL
Palace sensation as Prince denies any ‘sexual contact’
PRINCE ANDREW last night issued a dramatic and unprecedented denial that he slept with the woman at the centre of the extraordinary under-age ‘sex slave’ scandal.
For the first time, Buckingham Palace made a robust rebuttal of the allega- tions by Virginia Roberts that she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York in London, New York and the
Caribbean, starting when she was only 17. In a shock move last night, the Prince came out fighting against the woman whose allegations have dogged him for more than three years.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said in a statement to The Mail on Sunday: ‘It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts.
‘Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.’ According to Royal sources, the dramatic statement marks the beginning of a determined attempt to demolish the bombshell allegations made by Miss Roberts, who served as a masseuse to the Prince’s millionaire paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein for four years.
Insiders insist there is not a shred of truth in her attempt to drag the Prince into the sordid affair by naming him in US court papers uncovered on Friday, and so they had little option but to deny it publicly as his reputation is at stake. ‘There is nothing that the Duke cares more about than his reputation, which is why he decided to make this unprecedented denial of any impropriety,’ said a friend.
Prince Andrew resigned as the Government’s global trade envoy and apologised for his former friendship with Mr Epstein when the scandal first broke three years ago, and a picture emerged of the Prince with his arm around the teenage Miss Roberts. Since then, he has devoted his time to business and charity initiatives including encouraging entrepreneurs and apprenticeships.
The strongly worded denial goes much further than the limited statement issued by the palace on Friday – which did not refer to Miss Roberts’ name or mention sex or a relationship – and is the most personal statement issued in recent years on behalf of senior Royal.
It came after top Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who was also accused by Miss Roberts of having sex with her, made a forceful attack on the claims.
He said: ‘This person has made this up out of cloth, maliciously and knowingly in order to extort money from Mr Epstein.’
The lawyer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday that he would not rest until he had shown that the claims regarding his conduct were false and he advised the Duke to do everything in his power to clear his name.
‘My only feeling is, if she’s lied about me, which I know to an
absolute certainty she has, she should not be believed about anyone else,’ said.
‘We know she’s lied about other public figures including a former prime minister and others who she claims to have participated in sexual activities with, so I think it must be presumed all her allegations against Prince Andrew were false as well. You cannot allow these allegations to hang above you. You have to fight back with every resource and ounce of energy available to you.’