French want to quiz Andrew after rape arrest
FRENCH investigators want to interview Prince Andrew as part of their investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex ring.
They confirmed they wish to speak to the Duke of York following the arrest of Jean-Luc Brunel as part of a French judicial inquiry hearing about the fashion agent.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleges she had ‘sexual relations’ with Brunel several times when she was aged between 16 and 19.
Ms Giuffre, now 37, claims she was trafficked by Epstein and pressured into having sex with Prince Andrew.
The Duke, 60, has vehemently denied the claims or any wrongdoing. Brunel, 74, also denies any wrongdoing.
Brunel was ‘charged’ yesterday with raping minors and sexual harassment – allegations which could result in a life sentence.
A French source close to the investigation said that Brunel has been ‘mise en examen’. That means he has been placed under the examination of the investigating tribunal – the French equivalent of being charged.
The charges are the latest development in a French judicial inquiry into Epstein’s crimes that opened in August.
An investigating source said: ‘We have issued numerous appeals for witnesses to come forward, and Prince Andrew is clearly a witness to Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct over many years.
‘Beyond that, Prince Andrew is said to have visited Epstein’s home in Paris and had relations with victims Brunel is accused of abusing.
‘Andrew’s testament is accordingly crucial to the investigation, and he could, of course, be summoned.’
Brunel was indicted late on Friday after two days of interviews by an examining magistrate and specialist police from an antipaedophilia unit.
He was arrested at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday while trying to board a plane to Dakar, Senegal, telling detectives: ‘I’m going on holiday.’ Brunel is suspected of having been part of a global underage sex ring organised by Epstein, the American multi-billionaire who committed suicide last year in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial for numerous sex crimes.
Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, is currently on remand in the USA after being charged with the sex trafficking of underage girls and the enticement of minors. She has denied any wrongdoing.
A Paris whistleblower, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has already made allegations that Andrew visited Epstein’s home in Paris ‘on numerous occasions’.
The £8million luxury apartment in Avenue Foch, close to the Arc de Triomphe, allegedly features a massage room with walls of photographs of naked young women.
The property is now being formally viewed as a ‘crime scene’ while officially belonging to the late Epstein’s estate.