The Scottish Mail on Sunday

THE WORLD IS WATCHING, ANDREW

Four Epstein victims write an open letter to Duke urging him to talk to the FBI for the sake of ‘your daughters and their children’

- From Caroline Graham

THE DUKE of York was under renewed pressure last night after four of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims signed an open letter urging him to talk to the FBI for the sake of his ‘daughters and their children’.

It warns the Queen’s second son that ‘the world is watching’ and says he has the chance to be on the right side of history.

The victims say the Duke has the ability to create positive change, and they exhort him to take ‘the decent and moral path’ to help authoritie­s in the United States with anything he had observed during his friendship with the convicted paedophile.

Last week, the Duke’s accuser Virginia Roberts, who claims she was forced to sleep with him three times, issued a similar plea, saying he should do the right thing and adding: ‘Tick tock, Andy – time to talk!!’

Her interventi­on came as a top US prosecutor accused Andrew of providing ‘zero co-operation’, despite a request for an interview.

The open letter is written by a former model who uses the name ‘KiKi’ and is countersig­ned by three unnamed ‘Jane Doe’ victims.

All four are clients of Los Angelesbas­ed lawyer Lisa Bloom.

The letter says: ‘Please help the US authoritie­s with anything you may have observed in your time spent with Jeffrey Epstein.

‘Do it for the victims who have lived a life of suffering, shame and humiliatio­n. You can make things better for us and for future generation­s with your co-operation.

‘Do it for your daughters and their children. You have a chance to be on the right side of history. The world is watching.’

KiKi broke down in tears on a US talk show last year as she described being assaulted as a teenager by Epstein at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein, 66, killed himself last year as he awaited trial on child sex abuse charges.

Last week, Andrew and the FBI were at odds over whether the Prince had ignored requests for help in the Epstein inquiry. The Duke’s friends claimed he would be happy to speak to US investigat­ors but ‘hasn’t been approached yet’.

However, the Americans insisted that was untrue, claiming that they had tried several times to arrange an interview.

On Monday, New York attorney Geoffrey Berman accused the

Duke of ‘zero co-operation’. He gave a press conference outside Epstein’s New York mansion, where Andrew had stayed, and said that the Duke had failed to keep his promise to help police probing ‘co-conspirato­rs’.

Mr Berman claimed the FBI and US prosecutor­s had written to Prince Andrew’s lawyers seeking

‘Victims have lived a life of suffering and shame’

an interview but were snubbed. On Tuesday, an anonymous source close to the Duke said ‘nothing could be further from the truth’ and stressed that the Prince was ‘more than happy to talk to the FBI but he hasn’t been approached by them yet’.

In December, The Mail on Sunday revealed that a new witness had come forward to corroborat­e claims that Andrew was dancing with Ms Roberts at Tramp nightclub in London.

Ms Roberts says Epstein forced her to have sex with the Prince after a night of dancing at the club in March 2001.

After watching the Prince deny Ms Roberts’s claims during his ‘car-crash’ interview with Emily Maitlis on Newsnight, a woman came forward to insist that she had seen him at Tramp that evening.

Lisa Bloom flew to London to interview her and also tracked down a second person – a friend of the woman she originally came to interview – who supports her account of the night in question. During the Newsnight interview at Buckingham Palace, the Prince said he was not at Tramp and had taken his eldest daughter Beatrice to a party at Pizza Express in Woking that afternoon, and then went home.

Ms Bloom told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The first woman, a Londoner, contacted me after she saw Prince Andrew’s interview.

‘She was very disappoint­ed that he denied knowing Virginia and denied being at the club.

‘That is what spurred her to come forward. No one should be above the law.’

She added: ‘The FBI is looking into Prince Andrew. They want to speak to him.

‘He has said he wants to co-operate with law enforcemen­t and yet it doesn’t seem to be happening, so I would like to help this move forward.’

The Duke of York has vehemently denied Ms Roberts’s claims that she had sex with him on three occasions.

‘He said he’d co-operate but it’s not happening’

 ??  ?? ON THE SPOT: Prince Andrew peers out from inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home. Below: Alleged Epstein victim KiKi
ON THE SPOT: Prince Andrew peers out from inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home. Below: Alleged Epstein victim KiKi

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