Lady Victoria Hervey left Jeffrey Epstein’s apartment because she was being ‘watched’

Socialite Lady Victoria Hervey has today revealed how she once fled Jeffrey Epstein’s New York apartment amid fears that she was being ‘watched by hidden cameras’ as the storm around her ex-boyfriend Prince Andrew continues to grow.

The aristocrat, who dated Prince Andrew in 1999, claimed she was offered a place to stay in Manhattan by the convicted paedophile in 2001 but ‘cut the trip short as I felt I was being watched’.

Lady Victoria spoke to ITV’s Good Morning Britain today as sponsors continue to abandon Andrew’s campaigns following his disastrous TV interview on Saturday. 

She said she met Epstein in 2000 through his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who suggested she stay at the apartment while working as a model in the US. 

The flat was ‘close’ to Epstein’s Manhattan mansion where Prince Andrew frequently stayed and where it is alleged the disgraced tycoon sex trafficked numerous underage girls.

She claimed that despite being unaware of his predilection for young girls at the time, she still found the experience ‘uncomfortable’ and was concerned she was being spied on at the flat.

Lady Victoria spoke a day after Epstein victim Maria Farmer claimed Epstein kept surveillance cameras in some of the rooms inside his main Manhattan mansion. 

Farmer described being horrified when Epstein revealed to her a ‘media room’ which had TVs set up with feeds from pin-hole surveillance cameras in the bedrooms and bathrooms of the home. 

Prince Andrew is understood to have stayed at Epstein’s mansion on several occasions, including for four days in 2011, after Epstein had been released from jail for procuring a prostitute under the age of 18.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain today, she said: ‘I actually didn’t come across any of the other girls staying at the apartments but I felt uncomfortable staying there.

‘I cut my trip short and felt I was being watched, there were hidden cameras and I left after about 10 days and moved in with a friend of mine.

‘But even before I knew anything that’s come since out, I felt it.’ 

She denied suggestions that she was ‘too old’ at 23 to be a victim of Epstein, instead claiming that her ex-boyfriend’s friendship with Maxwell may have ‘protected’ her.

The former ‘it girl’ was opened up on her friendship with Maxwell, claiming she had not seen her in over a year and doubted she would ever be seen in public again.

She revealed how she was pulled into the Epstein and Maxwell’s exclusive inner circle after going on two dates with their mutual friend, the Duke of York, in 1999.

It was a year after dating the prince that she stayed by herself at Epstein’s luxury Manhattan flat at the behest of Maxwell while pursuing her stateside career.

Their friendship grew so close that Lady Hervey was even invited to an intimate dinner of 14 people hosted by Epstein, including guests such as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew. 

She said: ‘With Epstein and Ghislaine it was teamwork. He had the finances, she had the black book and they were a great pair together, and together they were taking over the world.

‘I haven’t seen her since September last year at a friend’s baby shower. I don’t think anyone is going to find her.

‘She’s gone far away. She’s a bit like a James Bond character. She’s quite a unique person and I don’t believe anyone is going to find her.

‘I don’t think we will ever see her again, it’s going to be like Robert Maxwell continued; she will continue that family mystery.’

Lady Hervey also spoke out on her ex’s disastrous BBC interview on Saturday in which he was probed about his friendship with Epstein and allegations about his own sexual misconduct. 

The prince has denied accusations that he had sex with Epstein victim Virginia Roberts on three occasions, twice while she was aged 17.

He suggested the world-famous picture of his arm around Ms Roberts’ waist could be faked as he denied ever meeting her.

Miss Roberts’ evidence that he sweated ‘profusely’ on the three occasions she claims they had sex were explained away by the duke claiming a rush of adrenaline while being shot at during the Falklands conflict in 1982 made it impossible for him to perspire.

However Lady Hervey said: ‘I watched it and thought, first of all, there’s no way if he is guilty that he would go onto TV and do an interview like that.

‘I think the public made their decision a long time ago, so him going on TV and he didn’t really give the public what they wanted, having any remorse, that’s’ why there’s been a backlash.

‘But I think he didn’t do it because there’s no way he would put himself in that situation.’

Lady Hervey’s fears of being discreetly filmed at one of Epstein’s properties tallies with the testimony of other alleged victims of the disgraced businessman.

Maria Farmer claimed the late pedophile kept surveillance camera footage of some of the rooms inside his Manhattan mansion and that he stored it in a safe. 

She spoke out in an interview with CBS that aired on Monday and Tuesday and told how she worked for Epstein in the 1990s after meeting him at an art show. 

She says Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell also sexually assaulted her in 1996, and that Maxwell subsequently threatened her life. 

It is unclear if the surveillance footage Farmer described exists and if it forms part of any police investigation. 

In July this year, the FBI raided Epstein’s home and authorities described finding passports, cash and diamonds, in a locked safe inside but there has never been any mention of surveillance footage of what went on in the property. 

‘It was all videoed all the time. I asked him, “What do you do with all this?” 

‘And he said “I keep it. I keep it all in my safe.”‘  

Farmer also described seeing ‘many’ women being brought into the home, most of whom were young. 

‘I saw many, many, many, many ,many, [young women] all day long. 

‘I saw Ghislaine going to get the women. She went to places like Central Park. 

‘I was with her sometimes and she would say “stop the car!”, she would dash out and get a child,’ Farmer alleged. 

When she asked Ghislaine what the girls were for, she claims she said she was ‘getting Victoria Secret models.’ 

Farmer said Maxwell had ‘her own floor’ in the Upper East Side mansion, where many women have described giving Epstein massages in their underwear and being sexually assaulted by him afterwards.  

The Duke of York faced a barrage of criticism following his television interview about the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal on Saturday night, with the royal accused of a lack of empathy with the victims.

Andrew’s attempt to set the record straight about his relationship with the convicted sex offender – and counter allegations he slept with one of Epstein’s groomed teenagers – was widely condemned for its unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse for the friendship.

Green Party co-leader Sian Berry said the duke’s interview for a special Saturday edition of BBC’s Newsnight programme was not ‘very empathetic’ with the teenage girls preyed on by the disgraced financier.

Commentators questioned Andrew’s decision to speak in depth for the first time about the allegations and his 10-year friendship with Epstein, with one calling it an ‘appalling lack of judgment’ and another saying his responses lacked conviction.

A legal expert said being a member of the monarchy did not give the duke a get out clause from being prosecuted in the US, and he was ‘unwise’ to have given a detailed account of his actions to the media. 

During the interview, Andrew, questioned by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, twice stated his relationship with Epstein, who died in jail while facing sex trafficking charges, had some ‘seriously beneficial outcomes’, giving him the opportunity to meet people and prepare for a future role as a trade envoy.

The duke denied he slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage, saying one encounter 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.

The same alleged sexual liaison, which the American said began with the royal sweating heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp, was factually wrong as the duke said he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.

He cast doubt on the authenticity of a picture that appears to show Andrew with his arm around the waist of Mrs Giuffre, when a teenager.

The royal said: ‘… from the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph. So it’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.’

The duke said the whole episode had not been damaging to the Queen, only to himself, and that the wider royal family ‘couldn’t be more supportive’.

He expressed regret at making contact with Epstein in 2010 – flying to New York to say in person the friendship was over – after the 66-year-old had been released from an 18-month prison term for prostituting minors.

But Maitlis highlighted how he spent a number of days with him at his home, and how he was guest of honour at a dinner party she said celebrated Epstein’s release.