Prince Andrew spotted for first time since Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest

View
comments

Prince Andrew has today been pictured for the first time since Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest  a week ago as Donald Trump’s Attorney General said his prosecutors ‘definitely’ want to speak to the royal about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam.

The Duke of York looked serious as he drove out of the gates of Windsor Castle this afternoon where he has been keeping a low profile at his lodge in the grounds of his mother’s estate.

Andrew is involved in a war of words with the US authorities over whether he will assist their inquiries into the sex crimes of his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein, who hanged himself in a New York jail cell last summer. 

Ms Maxwell was arrested on July 2 after a raid on her remote mansion in New Hampshire and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York after being charged with child sex trafficking and perjury. Epstein’s ‘sex slave’ Virginia Roberts claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17.

Today the US Attorney General Bill Barr said that Andrew must speak to the FBI and his team ‘definitely’ want to interview him.

He said: ‘The department wants to talk to Prince Andrew. That’s why the Southern District has been making efforts to communicate with him. We’ve made it clear that we’d like to communicate with him’.

A source close to Prince Andrew previously told DailyMail.com that he was ‘bewildered’ by the ongoing claims that he wasn’t cooperating, and says his team tried to reach prosecutors several times.

Speaking to ABC News Mr Barr said the government had Maxwell’s security ‘locked up’ to ensure she would neither be able to kill herself or be harmed, Barr answered firmly: ‘Yes. We have asked them to tell us specifically the protocols they’re following and we have a number of redundant systems to monitor the situation.’ 

He added that he was ‘livid’ when Epstein killed himself and that he wanted to see him brought to justice. 

‘I was livid obviously. I believed very strongly in that case and I was very proud of the work done by the department, the Southern District on that case, and as you recall, after he committed suicide, I said that I was confident that we would continue to pursue this case vigorously and continue to pursue anyone who was complicit in it. I was very happy we were able to get Ms Maxwell,’ he said. 

Maxwell, 58, is currently in custody in Brooklyn, awaiting her first court appearance on charges of child sex trafficking and perjury. Speculation is rife that she may talk to prosecutors about others in her and Epstein’s network in an effort to reduce her potential sentence. 

Among the names on the list is Prince Andrew, who allegedly slept with a 17-year-old after being introduced to her by Maxwell in London in 2001. 

Barr said that prosecutors ‘definitely’ want to speak to the royal and claims they have been trying to contact him.   

The duke, who stayed with Epstein at his homes, including a Manhattan mansion, and flew on his private jet nicknamed the ‘Lolita Express’, has categorically denied seeing or suspecting anything untoward.

He has also strenuously rejects claims by Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts, who has alleged that she was forced to have sex with the duke on three occasions.

Andrew has been urged to start talking to the FBI before British socialite Miss Maxwell, the daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell, gives her own version of events.

There is widespread speculation prosecutors could cut her a deal for a softer sentence if she ‘spills the beans’.

Last weekend, Miss Roberts said Andrew should be ‘panicking’ now that his friend is in custody. 

A friend of Miss Maxwell, Laura Goldman, also blasted the prince. Speaking to Good Morning Britain, she said: ‘Prince Andrew doesn’t know a lot. Partially because he’s not that intelligent, and he is spoiled and entitled so he didn’t really ask questions about what was happening. She has always told me she would never, ever say anything about him.’ 

Epstein was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last August. 

His death was ruled a suicide but his attorneys and some family members claim he was murdered to stop him from sharing what he knows about other high profile, powerful people. 

On the night of his death, the two guards tasked with checking in on him simply failed to. Instead, they were napping and watching TV, they claimed. 

There is also no surveillance footage from inside the jail from the evening he is said to have taken his own life. Those two things combined have driven conspiracy theorists into overdrive. 

Maxwell is due in court via video-link on Friday. 

She is accused of procuring three underage girls for Epstein between 1994 and 1997 and having sex with them herself. 

She has previously, in civil court, denied similar allegations.   

More British women have come forward to say they were abused by Prince Andrew’s friend Jeffrey Epstein, according to a lawyer involved in the case.

Gloria Allred, who represents 16 victims of the late paedophile financier, said a number of women from the UK had contacted her in recent days to make claims against the billionaire’s estate.  

58-year-old Maxwell allegedly groomed schoolgirls to be abused by the American teacher turned hedge fund manager. She allegedly befriended one of the underage girls in London, using her luxury Kensington mews house to groom the youngster for abuse. Maxwell has consistently denied all of the allegations made against her

After the FBI smashed down the door of her hideaway in the US state of New Hampshire, lawyers predicted more women would come forward with claims.

And yesterday Miss Allred told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I have now more people, more victims, come forward contacting me who have never come forward to anybody except me, and maybe they told one of their relatives what happened to them.

‘I do represent some people, from Europe, the UK as well, who have reached out.’