Britain’s Prince Andrew’s alleged links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to come under further scrutiny with the release of hundreds of files from a defamation case.
US judge Loretta Preska ruled on Monday that documents relating to more than 170 people who were either associates, friends or victims of disgraced financier Epstein should be made public.
They include 40 documents of evidence from Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed Prince Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaire’s Manhattan apartment in 2001. Buckingham Palace previously said the allegations are “categorically untrue”.
The documents are part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who supplied Epstein with underage girls.
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The individuals who are set to be named in the documents will have 14 days to appeal against the judge’s decision – meaning they are likely to be released in early January.
Ms Giuffre settled her civil claim against Maxwell, but representatives of the media have since argued documents that were sealed as part of the case should be made public.
Judge Preska ordered some individuals should be named because they had already given interviews to the media – including Ms Sjoberg.
Prince Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case to Ms Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.
The duke 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.
In January 2022, ahead of his legal settlement, his mother Queen Elizabeth II stripped Prince Andrew Andrew of all of his honorary military roles, including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell has been imprisoned since July 2020, despite numerous attempts from her defence counsel to have her released on bail. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the Southern District of New York in June last year.
The socialite indicated her desire to appeal shortly after her conviction, with her lawyers claiming victims had “faded, distorted and motivated memories”.
Her appeal is currently scheduled to be heard in November next year. - PA