Prince Andrew’s relationship with dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was back under the microscope Sunday evening after British newspaper the Daily Mail revealed that Andrew was misleading when he told the BBC he did not stay at Epstein’s house when he was in New York in April 2001.
He was questioned on camera by Emily Maitlis of the BBC about his movements during the three-day trip because one Epstein victim, Johanna Sjoberg, had previously accused Andrew of a bizarre groping incident at Epstein’s home involving a Spitting Image puppet on the trip. Another Epstein victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, claims that it was after the groping incident that she was ordered to have sex with “Andy.”
When Andrew was interrogated by Maitlis on camera about Sjoberg’s allegation, he conceded that he might have visited the property during the trip but denied staying there.
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Andrew said, in a stumbling reply: “I probably did… because of what I was doing I was staying with the consul general which is further down the street on Fifth so I wasn’t… I wasn’t staying there. I may have visited but definitely didn’t, definitely, definitely no, no, no activity.”
However, the Daily Mail, quoting an official itinerary, reports that Andrew’s official schedule specifies that on the last night of his American trip he was staying at a “private address.”
The Mail says, “That address was Epstein’s home near Central Park,” citing confidential sources. It adds that a British police bodyguard also spent the night at Epstein’s townhouse, the largest private residence in the city.
The Mail adds that “well-placed sources” and “sources close to Andrew” are now conceding that he did stay there and are now making the argument that he stayed there “to save taxpayers’ money.”
On the record, Andrew’s team told the Mail: “It would not be appropriate to comment on any of these matters.”
The revelation is due to be published in Monday's paper as the latest installment of the Mail’s renewed investigation of Andrew’s links to Epstein. The investigation has already called into question Andrew’s famous “pizza alibi.”
The Mail also reports on a gap of a few hours set aside in New York for what was called “Private Time” in the duke’s confidential tour itinerary. It alleges that this “private time” time slot coincides with the time he allegedly had sex with Roberts Giuffre at Epstein’s. This was allegedly on April 9, after the puppet groping incident.
The Mail also alleges that on April 9, David Rodgers, Epstein’s pilot, flew in to Teterboro Airport on Epstein’s Gulfstream business jet, and that the passengers aboard Flight 1488 included Epstein, Roberts Giuffre, and a young woman named as “Joann” in the log who is believed to be Johanna Sjoberg, then 21.
Although the Mail suggests that Andrew may have met Epstein and the women during the time marked “private time,” it notes that on the night Andrew actually stayed at Epstein’s house, April 11, the last night of his trip, they had all already left the city before Andrew arrived.
Sjoberg recalled the bizarre groping episode in a deposition she gave under oath in 2016.
Sjoberg said Andrew had been given the Spitting Image puppet of himself as a joke by Ghislaine Maxwell.
She said: “I just remember someone suggesting a photo and they told us to get on the couch. And so Virginia and Andrew sat on the couch and they put the puppet on her lap.
“And so I sat on Andrew’s lap, I believe of my own volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast and so Andrew put his on mine.”
