STANDARD
Virginia Giuffre claimed Jeffrey Epstein paid her $15,000 to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 years old, newly released court documents reveal.
In a 2016 deposition that has now been made public, Ms Giuffre said: “I did receive 15,000 dollars. I do not know the equivalent to what that is in pounds.”
She also claimed she was trafficked to another “foreign” prince, as well as a well-known prime minister she refused to name over concerns for her safety.
A deposition by paedophile financier Epstein has also been unsealed, showing he refused to answer lawyers’ questions over whether he had paid Ms Giuffre to have sex with the Duke of York, and whether he later attempted to blackmail Andrew over the alleged sexual encounter.
Prince Andrew strenuously denies all allegations against him.
In total, 215 documents relating to Epstein have been “unsealed” over the course of five days after the media argued it was in the public interest to remove redactions which hid the names of individuals who were allegedly associated with the disgraced financier. Inclusion in the documents does not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing.
Epstein’s unsealed deposition shows he declined to answer almost all of the questions – also known as pleading the fifth amendment in the US – during his interview under oath as part of Ms Giuffre’s 2015 US civil claim against disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
He was quizzed over whether he and Maxwell instructed Ms Giuffre to have sex with Andrew in 2001.
Ms Giuffre’s counsel, Paul Cassell, asked him: “In fact, it would be a fair assessment of all the circumstances surrounding this situation to say that you forced Virginia to have sex with Prince Andrew?”
After Epstein declined to answer, the lawyer continued: “What would have happened to Virginia if she had refused to have sex with Prince Andrew?”
Following another refusal to answer the question, Mr Cassell then asked Epstein: “Shortly after Prince Andrew and Virginia had sex, Virginia gave you a full report about the details of the sex, true?”
Mr Cassell also said: “Isn’t it true, sir, that Prince Andrew thanked you for making Virginia available to him for sexual purposes?”
Epstein declined to answer both questions.
Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein, and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.
He was cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style after Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
During Epstein’s deposition, Ms Giuffre’s lawyer Mr Cassell asked him about an alleged blackmail plot against Prince Andrew.
He said: “You had previously instructed Virginia that she had to give you a full report on the details of what men like Prince Andrew did to her so that you would have blackmail material you could use, true?”
Epstein was also quizzed on what he knew about Andrew’s “sexual preferences”, and on whether Ms Giuffre had “recounted specific behaviour that Prince Andrew requested before sexual intercourse”.
