Will Epstein’s ‘secret British girlfriend’ lift lid on Andrew?
A SECRET ‘girlfriend’ of Jeffrey Epstein identified in bombshell court papers is a Cheshire-born publisher turned ‘spiritual entrepreneur’ who took scores of flights on the paedophile’s ‘Lolita Express’ private jet.
In a previously sealed email, alleged Epstein ‘madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell named a woman called ‘Shelley’ as the millionaire’s girlfriend between 1999 and 2002, during which time sex-trafficked teenager Virginia Roberts alleges she was coerced into having sex with Prince Andrew. He vehemently denies the allegations.
The Mail on Sunday understands that woman is Shelley Anne Lewis, 43, who was born in Manchester and once worked in the contemporary art department of Christie’s auction house in New York.
She now runs a firm that hosts yoga retreats in the US having previously owned companies offering ‘lifestyle guru’ courses to clients who wished to ‘heal from their past’. There is no suggestion that Ms Lewis was involved with, or aware of, any criminality, but she could now be approached by prosecutors or lawyers acting for Epstein’s victims to see if she can assist them.
Last night, one of those lawyers said: ‘Ms Lewis may have information which could be valuable and which could aid victims who are seeking compensation from Epstein’s estate. We would urge her to tell the FBI what she knows.’
In an email to Epstein in January 2015, released last week as part of a tranche of documents compiled in a defamation case brought by Ms Roberts, Maxwell, 58, wrote: ‘I would appreciate it if shelley would come out and say she was your g’friend – I think she was from end [19]99 to 2002.’ Epstein did not question the assertion that ‘Shelley’ was his girlfriend during that period, simply replying: ‘Ok with me.’
Flight logs appear to show that Ms Lewis was a frequent passenger on Epstein’s private jets, often travelling only with the US financier, who apparently took his life last August while awaiting trial for child sex offences. Destinations included New York, where Epstein had a £55million townhouse, and Little St James, his private island in the Caribbean that has been dubbed ‘Paedo Island’.
Ms Lewis was 22 in 1999 when it is understood she met the then 46-year-old businessman in New
York, where she worked for Christie’s. She deleted all her social media profiles shortly after the release of the court documents on Friday, but in previous interviews she has described how she was helped by a ‘mentor’ in New York who ‘was so original in all his thought processes that he couldn’t even see the box. My already inquisitive and curious nature evolved. I supposed it gave me a kind of “anything is possible” mentality.’
In the mid-2000s, Ms Lewis published a children’s book, A Key To The Heart, which was praised by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and former US First Lady Laura Bush. Ms Lewis later told how she had a ‘spiritual awakening.’
The website for The Equanimity Expert, one of Ms Lewis’s firms, says: ‘After an experience of direct awakening at age seventeen, Shelley Lewis has been on the path of inner transformation ever since. Now as a wellness entrepreneur and inner beauty expert, living and working in NYC and London, she actively holds Sacred Space, helping clients heal from their past and envision their future.’
A former colleague last night expressed shock at Ms Lewis’s links to Epstein, saying: ‘Shelley was always very well connected and beautiful. I am shocked and saddened.’ Ms Lewis, who divides her time between London and New York, owns an £800,000 apartment with her sister in West London. She did not respond to requests for comment. Her father Brian, a retired millionaire businessman, said he felt ‘very sad’ for Epstein’s victims, but added: ‘I’ve not seen my daughter for ages. I have no idea what she would want to say.’
Other documents in the newly released 650-page cache make for chilling reading. In one, prosecutors claim that Maxwell, the daughter of shamed publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell and a long-time friend of Prince Andrew, secretly filmed under-age girls being abused. They include Ms Roberts, who is identified as Jane Doe #3. ‘In addition to participating in the sexual abuse of Jane Doe #3 and others, Maxwell also took numerous sexually explicit pictures of underage girls involved in sexual activities,’ a document alleges.
‘She shared those photographs, which constitute child pornography under federal laws, with Epstein. The government is apparently aware of and in certain instances possesses some of these photographs.’ The court papers repeat Ms Roberts’s claims that she was sex trafficked to Prince Andrew three times, including when she was just 17 at Maxwell’s London mews house. ‘Maxwell facilitated Prince Andrew’s acts of sexual abuse
‘She may have information which could aid the victims’
‘She was always well connected and beautiful’
by acting as a “madam” for Epstein,’ they allege.
The Prince has repeatedly denied her claims and any wrongdoing. After the release of the documents, a source close to Andrew said: ‘Allegations are not the same as facts, which is the essential premise on which justice works. Let’s see if these allegations stand up, because precious few about the Duke do.’ Meanwhile, the contempt in which Maxwell is accused of viewing her alleged victims is laid bare in Ms Roberts’s 89-page deposition. In it, she describes how her father drove her to Epstein’s £25million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, the day after she met Maxwell at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private beach club.
At the time, Ms Roberts was 16 and working as a locker-room attendant. She says she was ‘lured’ to Epstein’s mansion with the promise that a ‘wealthy benefactor’ would pay for her to become a massage therapist.
Recalling the day, Ms Roberts said: ‘Ghislaine answered the door… She stepped out, shook hands with my dad, told him she’d look after me and she’d make sure I get a ride home. My dad left and I went inside with Ghislaine.’
Within an hour, Ms Roberts claims she was being brutally assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell in an upstairs bathroom.
Maxwell is also accused of boasting during a trip to Paris, where Epstein had another home, of how proficient she was at procuring girls for her millionaire friend. She walked up to a French girl to show me how easy it was for her to procure girls,’ Ms Roberts claimed. ‘I wasn’t very good at it. So she walked up to her. Within five minutes she had her number and that girl came over later that night to the hotel and serviced Jeffrey. My whole life revolved around… keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy. Their whole lives revolved around sex.’
Maxwell is awaiting trial after being charged with six counts of child abuse allegedly committed between 1994 and 1997. She denies the claims but if convicted faces up to 35 years in prison.
She is on remand at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Detention Center after bail was denied. Her trial is scheduled for next July. Her lawyers have been fighting to keep secret further documents. They are reported to contain ‘graphic and embarrassing’ details about the socialite’s sex life. A judge has ruled they can stay sealed for now but is expected to publicly release them within weeks.