Prince Andrew sent an email to Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell at 5.50am to let her know he had ‘specific questions’ about Virginia Roberts in 2015.
Tonight’s BBC Panorama investigation uncovered the email which suggests he asked for Ghislaine Maxwell’s help in responding to Virginia Roberts’ claims he had sex with her when she was 17 and a trafficked ‘sex slave’ of Epstein.
In the email the Prince tells Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.’
Ghislaine replies: ‘Have some info. Call me when you have a moment.’
The Duke of York sent an email to Ghislaine Maxwell at 5.50am in 2015 to let her know he had ‘specific questions’ about Virginia Roberts after elements of the allegations came to light
Maxwell replied to say she had ‘some info’ and recommended Andrew telephone her
In moving and at times tearful interviews on Monday night, Virginia Roberts also said she is ‘calling BS’ on ‘ridiculous excuses’ from ‘people on the inside’ which seek to rubbish her claim of having had sex with Prince Andrew while a teenager trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, adding, ‘because that’s what it is’
In moving and at times tearful interviews tonight, Virginia Roberts also said she is ‘calling BS’ on ‘ridiculous excuses’ from ‘people on the inside’ which seek to rubbish her claim of having had sex with Prince Andrew while a teenager trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, adding, ‘because that’s what it is’.
The 35-year-old has continually alleged that she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and had to have sex with Andrew, which the Duke of York categorically denies.
She told the BBC‘s Panorama in an interview on BBC One at 9pm tonight that ‘The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses – like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘I mean, come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is.’
Jeffrey Epstein appears during a police interview in the United States which was cut short by his lawyer after he was asked about the shape of his privates
Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell are seen at a private function during the Panorama programme
Sticking to her story she described feeling ‘horrified, disgusted and ashamed’ after sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 at the direction of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
The 35-year-old told the BBC tonight that after leaving Tramp nightclub with Prince Andrew: ‘In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey.
‘And that made me sick. I didn’t expect it from royalty. I didn’t expect it from someone that people look up to and admire – the royal family.’
She said: ‘There was a bath and it started there and it led into the bedroom. It didn’t last very long the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting.
‘He wasn’t mean or anything. But he got up and said thanks and walked out. And I sat there in bed just felt horrified and ashamed and felt dirty.’
She added: ‘I had just been abused by a member of the royal family.’
Jeffrey Epstein riding a quad bike on his private Caribbean island
Esptein speaks on the phone while a young woman stands behind him
She also told the BBC that she knew she ‘had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine (Maxwell, Epstein’s then-girlfriend) would have expected from me.’
Miss Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, urged the British public to ‘stand up beside me to help me fight this fight’ and ‘not accept this as being OK’.
In the interview with BBC Panorama, she told how Andrew was ‘the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life’ and ‘his sweat was … raining basically everywhere’.
Miss Roberts’s interview took place before the duke’s appearance on Newsnight.
In the broadcast she revealed she was sexually abused from the age of seven and had run away from home.
She said: ‘ I was abused from a very young age. Seven years old and my childhood was quickly taken away from me.
‘I was just so mentally scarred already at such a young age and I ran away from that. I found nothing on the streets except for hunger and pain and abuse and it was scary, I wanted to get out of it.’
She added: ‘I implore the people in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being OK.
‘This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked, This is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys’ royalty.’
The Panorama investigation also discovered that lawyers for five of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims want Prince Andrew to provide testimony in their court cases.
The five women, who are suing Epstein’s estate, say the Prince witnessed how people were given massages at the sexual predator’s homes.
Pre-trial witness subpoenas have been prepared for all five cases and could be served on Prince Andrew if he returns to the United States.
The subpoenas would have to be signed off by a judge once the Prince was on US soil. He would then be able to challenge the subpoena in court if he didn’t want to give evidence.
Prince Andrew says that he did not see, witness or suspect any suspicious behaviour during his visits to Mr Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York and the Caribbean.
But the lawyer who represents the five women says the Duke of York could have important information about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. David Boies told Panorama: ‘One of the things that we have tried is to interview Prince Andrew and to try to get what his explanation is.
‘He was a frequent visitor. They ought to submit to an interview. They ought to talk about it’.
Lawyers for the victims have written twice to the prince requesting an interview, but have yet to receive a response.
The hour-long investigative programme entitled The Prince and the Epstein Scandal was first trailed last Thursday.
In clips released ahead of the screening, Miss Roberts alleged how she was brought to London by Epstein in 2001, introduced to Andrew and taken to Tramp nightclub, and asked by the duke to dance.
She told Panorama reporter Darragh Macintyre: ‘He is the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life.
‘It was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me, his sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere, I was just like grossed out from it, but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine would have expected from me.’
In his recent Newsnight interview, Andrew claimed he had a medical condition in 2001, after suffering an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when he was shot at, which meant he did not sweat.
When they had left the club, Miss Roberts said the socialite Ms Maxwell gave her instructions. She added: ‘In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey and that just made me sick.’
Andrew was pictured with his arm around Virginia Roberts’s waist at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house in London in March 2001, although he has raised doubts about the veracity of the photograph
Prince Andrew leaves his home at Royal Lodge at Windsor Great Park in Berkshire today
She said that later that evening she had sex with Andrew upstairs at Maxwell’s house in Belgravia.
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a prison in New York City in August
The duke has insisted he has no memory of meeting Miss Roberts, saying: ‘I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.’
He denies having sex with her.
The duke has been pictured with his arm around Miss Roberts’s waist at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house.
He said he had no memory of the photo being taken and questioned whether it was his own hand in the image – claims derided as ‘BS’ by Miss Roberts.
‘He knows what happened. I know what happened and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me.’
Andrew’s attempts to defend himself against Miss Roberts’s previous accusations and explain his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein in a BBC Newsnight interview last month were branded a ‘car crash’ and led to him withdrawing from public duties.
He was widely criticised for failing to show remorse for his association with the disgraced financier or empathy with Epstein’s victims during his television appearance.
He has resigned from a large number of patronages and seen organisations he was once involved with sever ties.
Miss Roberts claimed in court papers in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was aged 17, below the state’s age of consent.
However, that allegation was struck out by a judge in 2015 for being ‘immaterial and impertinent’.
Andrew was interviewed by Emily Maitlis in a Newsnight programme shown on November 16
In response to tonight’s Panorama, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said the Duke ‘unequivocally regrets his ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein’ and ‘deeply sympathises with those affected who want some form of closure’.
They said ‘it is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation’.
The palace has also stated that any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors by the duke was ‘categorically untrue’.
Miss Roberts alleges the duke slept with her on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage.
During his Newsnight interview, the duke said an alleged encounter with Miss Roberts in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.
Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell are pictured in New York in March 2005
Epstein took his own life in August in a New York prison while he was being held on sex trafficking charges.
The prince has also been plunged into a fresh crisis over claims he abused his taxpayer-funded trade role to benefit an associate.
Leaked papers reveal how he exploited the position to open doors for the tycoon David ‘Spotty’ Rowland while on official trade missions.
Buckingham Palace did not respond to the claims, but said in a statement that the aim of the duke’s trade role ‘was to promote Britain and British interests overseas, not the interests of individuals’.
Panorama: The Prince and the Epstein Scandal will be on BBC One at 9pm tonight
‘She might be close to tears’: Body language expert Judi James says Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts appears both angry and vulnerable in her Panorama interview
The woman who claims she slept with Prince Andrew as a teenager looks both ‘angry’ and ‘vulnerable’ in a new BBC interview, a body language expert said today.
Virginia Roberts has spoken out over claims she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with Andrew, which the Duke of York categorically denies.
Body language expert Judi James studied three clips which have been released ahead of the long-awaited interview being broadcast on BBC One at 9pm tonight.
Ms James told MailOnline that the new videos ‘show a woman looking firstly repulsed, then angry or indignant, and lastly more vulnerable and pleading’.
But she added that Miss Roberts’s ’emotional displays are largely contained rather than over or incongruent and her vocal tone makes her sound and look assertive’.
Here, she looks at each of the three new clips in detail and gives her assessment:
CLIP ONE — ‘He is the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life’
VIRGINIA ROBERTS TRANSCRIPT: ‘We went into the VIP section. There was no waiting in the lines obviously – you were with a prince. Andrew asked me what I wanted to drink, you know, and I said oh, you know, something from the bar.
‘He had something clear. I know mine was vodka and then he asked me to dance. He is the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life.
‘I mean it was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me, like his sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere I was just like grossed out from it but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine would have expected from me.’
ANALYSIS BY JUDI JAMES: ‘Virginia’s eye contact is interesting. She appears to be a keen communicator, sitting upright and seeming to lean slightly towards her interviewer. During the discussion of Andrew’s dancing and sweating she begins with raised brows and strong but not over-performed eye contact.
‘She then looks down and her eyes dart to the right which can be said to be linked to creative thought, but which can also be prompted by someone selecting the right words before speaking.
‘She then performs a prolonged eye cut-off, closing her eyes as she says he is ‘the most hideous dancer’. Cut-offs can be used to conceal the eye expression but that would tend to be more common when someone is answering a direct, ‘killer’ question, whereas here Virginia is creating her own narrative.
‘If she is closing her eyes to internalise her thoughts to recapture the moment or even to try to reject the bad memory, her narrative makes her mouth purse into a small, mirthless laugh.
‘She then perform mime gestures to describe how his sweat was ‘raining down on her’, looking up and splaying her fingers to mimic the ‘raining’ sweat. This comes with a small nose-wrinkle of disgust and she also mimes retching.’
CLIP TWO — ‘He knows what happened. I know what happened’
VIRGINIA ROBERTS TRANSCRIPT: ‘The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses. Like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or uh he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘I mean come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is. He knows what happened. I know what happened, and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me.’
ANALYSIS BY JUDI JAMES: ‘During the second clip she seems to showing some suppressed anger about the ‘ridiculous excuses’ from what she calls ‘the people inside’.
‘Her body language appears more challenging and defiant here and there is a small neck-wobble as she speaks to suggest some anger, although her vocal tone sounds assertive rather than over-emotional. She raises her index finger in a gesture of what looks like warning gesture.’
CLIP THREE — ‘This is a story of being trafficked’
VIRGINIA ROBERTS TRANSCRIPT: ‘I implore the people in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being OK.
‘This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked, this is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys’ royalty.’
ANALYSIS BY JUDI JAMES: ‘In the third clip Virginia looks slightly more vulnerable although – again – this doesn’t seem like something she is over-playing here during these clips.
‘She uses eye contact again to suggest openness as she ‘implores’ the people of the UK to ‘stand up beside me’. Her words sound assertive here but her vocal tone sounds less assured as though she might be close to tears.’
Gruesome threesome’s Ascot day out: Prince Andrew is seen at the races with Ghislaine Maxwell and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in never-before-seen photos
By Ross Ibbetson for MailOnline
Newly unearthed photographs show Prince Andrew‘s friends, millionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged pimp Ghislaine Maxwell at Ascot racecourse.
Epstein, dressed in a top hat and morning suit, has a grin across his face as he walks with Miss Maxwell and the Duke of York through the heart of the British establishment.
Pictured in June 2000, Prince Andrew had been introduced to Epstein just months before by Miss Maxwell, then known for being the daughter of newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.
Miss Maxwell, who walks in between the prince and Epstein, is obscured by the hat of a lady walking in front of her.
It was during this time that Miss Maxwell and Epstein were to attend Windsor Castle, just a few miles from the racecourse, as guests of the prince for his birthday.
Prince Andrew, left, with Ghislaine Maxwell, centre in a green jacket and pink hat, her face obscured by a lady in front, and Jeffrey Epstein, right, at Royal Ascot on June 22, 2000
Prince Andrew alongside Ghislaine Maxwell at Royal Ascot on June 22, 2000. As well as their outing at Ascot, Miss Maxwell and Epstein were guests of Prince Andrew at Windsor Castle for his birthday at the Dance of the Decades during the time
The Dance of the Decades, a lavish party hosted by the Queen, celebrated four royal birthdays, including Prince Andrew’s 40th, the Princess Royal’s 50th, the Queen Mother’s 100th and Princess Margaret’s 70th.
In Prince Andrew’s interview with Newsnight last month he said Epstein was there at his invitation, not the Royal Family’s. He added that the financier was Miss Maxwell’s ‘plus one.’
The prince was photographed with Miss Maxwell at several other private functions in the UK and the US that year.
At the wedding of his former girlfriend Aurelia Cecil in Wiltshire in September 2000 and at a ‘Hookers and Pimps’ themed Halloween Party in Manhattan.
And finally, Miss Maxwell and Epstein were seen together at Sandringham in December of that year to attend what the prince has described as a ‘straightforward shooting weekend.’
Early the following year, in the most infamous photo of all, the Duke of York was pictured with his arm around the waist of 17-year-old Virginia Roberts with Miss Maxwell stood in the background.
Ms Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, told BBC’s Panorama on Monday night that she was trafficked to London by Epstein and instructed to have sex with Prince Andrew, prior to the photo being taken in Miss Maxwell’s Belgravia townhouse.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on a ‘straightforward shooting weekend’ at Sandringham in December 2000 (left) and Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell at the wedding of his former girlfriend Aurelia Cecil in Wiltshire in September 2000 (right)
Ms Giuffre told Panorama: ‘The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses – like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is.’
The 35-year-old said that after leaving Tramp nightclub with Prince Andrew: ‘In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey.
‘And that made me sick. I didn’t expect it from royalty. I didn’t expect it from someone that people look up to and admire – the Royal Family.’
She said: ‘There was a bath and it started there and it led into the bedroom. It didn’t last very long the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting.
‘He wasn’t mean or anything. But he got up and said thanks and walked out. And I sat there in bed just felt horrified and ashamed and and felt dirty.’
She added: ‘I had just been abused by a member of the royal family.’
Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein in Manhattan in 2010. The duke quit his role as UK trade envoy the following year in the wake of the fallout from the Central Park photos
The Duke of York emphatically denies any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Giuffre and says he has no recollection of meeting her.
Prince Andrew told Emily Maitlis previously: ‘You can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it’s a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.
‘It’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph being taken…That’s me but whether that’s my hand…I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken.’
Andrew, 59, has categorically denied having sex with Ms Giuffre and apologised for his association with Epstein, who died in prison in August in what New York City officials said was a suicide.
The disgraced prince has stepped down from royal duties ‘for the foreseeable future’ because of his friendship with Epstein.
The scandal is one of the worst to have gripped the royal household in recent decades and has severely tarnished the reputation of Andrew.
Now FIVE more women want Prince Andrew to testify: Accusers say Duke saw Jeffrey Epstein abusing them and must speak to the FBI
By Ross Ibbetson for MailOnline
Five of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers want Prince Andrew to give evidence in US courts and say the duke must talk about what he witnessed to the FBI.
Their lawyer claims the Duke of York witnessed men being given massages at the financier’s homes, the BBC‘s Panorama programme revealed on Monday night.
Pre-trial witness subpoenas have been prepared for the five cases and could be served on the prince if he was ever to set foot in the United States again.
Prince Andrew has said he never saw anything untoward at Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida or the Caribbean.
The lawyer for the five women, David Boies, told Panorama: ‘One of the things that we have tried is to interview Prince Andrew and to try to get what his explanation is.
Prince Andrew taking a stroll through New York’s Central Park with Epstein following his prison term on December 5, 2010. The prince told the BBC last month the purpose of the visit was to end his friendship with Epstein
‘He was a frequent visitor. They ought to submit to an interview. They ought to talk about it.’
Lawyers for the victims claim they have written to the prince twice requesting an interview but have yet to receive a response.
Prince Andrew was last month asked by the BBC whether he would ever testify under oath, and he replied: ‘If push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so, then I would be duty bound to do so.’
Virginia Giuffre, formerly Roberts, has previously described how it would have been impossible to spend time with Epstein and not known what was going on.
Describing Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, Prince Andrew told Emily Maitlis: ‘There were a lot of people who were walking around Jeffrey Epstein’s house. As far as I was aware, they were staff, they were people that were working for him, doing things.’
He added: ‘I interacted with them, if you will, to say good morning, good afternoon but I didn’t, if you see what I mean, interact with them in a way that was, you know what are you doing here, why are you here, what’s going on?’
The five women who are suing Epstein’s estate would still require a judge to sign off on the drafted subpoenas and Prince Andrew could then fight them in court if he did not wish to provide evidence.
Tonight on Panorama, Ms Giuffre told how she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with with Andrew, which the Duke of York categorically denies.
She told the BBC‘s Panorama: ‘The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses – like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘I mean, come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is.’
Sticking to her story she described feeling ‘horrified, disgusted and ashamed’ after sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 at the direction of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
The 35-year-old told the BBC that after leaving Tramp nightclub with Prince Andrew: ‘In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey.
‘And that made me sick. I didn’t expect it from royalty. I didn’t expect it from someone that people look up to and admire – the royal family.’
Prince Andrew waves to a guest from the entrance of Epstein’s apartment in Manhattan in 2010
She said: ‘There was a bath and it started there and it led into the bedroom. It didn’t last very long the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting.
‘He wasn’t mean or anything. But he got up and said thanks and walked out. And I sat there in bed just felt horrified and ashamed and felt dirty.’
She added: ‘I had just been abused by a member of the royal family.’
She also told the BBC that she knew she ‘had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine (Maxwell, Epstein’s then-girlfriend) would have expected from me.’
Ms Giuffre urged the British public to ‘stand up beside me to help me fight this fight’ and ‘not accept this as being OK’.
Andrew, 59, has categorically denied having sex with Ms Giuffre and apologised for his association with Epstein, who died in prison in August in what New York City officials said was a suicide.
The prince has stepped down from royal duties ‘for the foreseeable future’ because of his friendship with Epstein.
The scandal is one of the worst to have gripped the royal household in recent decades and has severely tarnished the reputation of Andrew.
