Six witnesses can link Prince Andrew to sex assault accuser, say lawyers

LAWYERS for Prince Andrew’s sex assault accuser claim they have six witnesses who will say the two met — as they labelled Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction “ominous” for the royal.

David Boies urged Andrew to “take responsibility” for his alleged actions as he outlined what Maxwell’s guilt may mean for Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s sex assault lawsuit against him.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, sitting in New York, will decide on Tuesday if Ms Roberts’ civil claim for unspecified damages against the Duke of York can proceed to trial.

It came as her lawyers made eight “discovery requests” of the duke in readiness for a possible longer hearing including proof for his Newsnight claim that he cannot sweat.

Ms Giuffre, 38, said in a 2019 interview that the prince was “sweating all over me” at a club on a night she alleges they had sex.

She claims she was trafficked to the duke in 2001 at age 17 and abused in London, New York and the Caribbean.

The duke denies any sexual activity with her and said on BBC’s Newsnight that he could not recall meeting her.

He was seen yesterday for the first time since the Maxwell trial, driving himself and   a bodyguard towards Windsor Castle.

He is alone at home after ex-wife Fergie and his two daughters went skiing.

In our interview, Mr Boies accused the  royal of making  tone deaf comments   concerning his client that “reek of desperation”.

He said: “Maxwell tried that with very experienced, high-priced, very aggressive lawyers and it failed totally.

"It’s an ominous sign for Prince Andrew. His playbook has been the same as Maxwell’s — blame, shame, deny, deny, deny.

“I think if he were prepared to take responsibility, it would go a long way towards resolving the claims.

🔵 Read our Royal Family live blog for the latest updates

He is where he is because of his totally tone-deaf . . . mindless attacks on the character and credibility of brave, courageous, committed young women.”

Mr Boies said several witnesses were willing to say the duke and Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivor Ms Roberts had met. He said: “We have four or five or six witnesses who will place them together.”

Florida hairdresser Johanna Sjoberg, 41, is among them. She has claimed the prince, 61, touched her breast as he larked around with Ms Roberts at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion with a latex Spitting Image puppet of himself.

Ms Roberts’ lawyers have also secured the testimony of Steve Scully, who worked for Epstein.

He says he saw the duke and Ms Roberts kiss at Epstein’s private island.

Mr Boies said his team may get Maxwell’s youngest victim, “Jane”, to testify.

She was 14 when she was groomed by the British socialite and told the trial she flew on Epstein’s jet — dubbed the “Lolita Express” — with Prince Andrew.

Mr Boies, 80, told of the evidence his team have against the Prince, including the now infamous photo of him with Ms Roberts.

He said: “If Prince Andrew is even a little reflective, he’ll understand that the idea you can deny what numerous witnesses testified to, what photographs show, what plane logs demonstrate . . . the idea that you can blame and shame a victim to distract attention for your own conduct, doesn’t work.”

Mr Boies added that Ms Roberts had been “thrilled” by last week’s Maxwell verdict.

Maxwell faces up to 65 years’ jail after being convicted of five counts of grooming girls for ex-lover Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring.

Convicted sex offender Epstein, 66, was found hanged in jail while awaiting trial.

One count was based on Ms Roberts’ testimony that she was recruited and groomed by Maxwell.

Mr Boies said: “The vindication of a jury verdict was everything Virginia hoped and worked for.

“It’s almost eight years from the time she walked into my office and said she wanted to bring Epstein and Maxwell to justice. It was an extraordinarily difficult road.”

He added: “In addition to the sexual abuse she suffered, she suffered years of media abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and people like . . . Prince Andrew, who tried to blame her and shame her.

“They asserted that she made the whole thing up — she was just after money and publicity.

“To have a jury finally reject those arguments and believe the testimony that Virginia had been trafficked is the kind of vindication that not only provides her with personal satisfaction, but helps justify what she has gone through.”

He spoke out as his firm lodged legal papers requesting proof of the prince’s Newsnight claim he cannot sweat.

It is among the eight requests made of the Duke of York.

The papers ask for all documents concerning his “alleged medical condition of anhidrosis, hypohidrosis, or your inability to sweat”.

Prince Andrew told to provide evidence

They ask for the duke to provide any proof he may have of a visit to Tramp, the Mayfair club Ms Roberts claims they danced at on the night she alleges they had sex.

The prince claimed on Newsnight that he was at a Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey, when he was supposed to be with Ms Roberts. He was asked to provide evidence.

The Queen’s second son was also asked to divulge his correspondence with Maxwell and Epstein on topics of abuse or the royal’s “sexual relations with anyone”.

In another court document, Mr Boies blasted the duke’s responses to their requests.

The royal’s team rejected them, claiming they were protected from disclosure by rights of privacy under the US constitution and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Boies said: “Based on his discovery responses, Prince Andrew has apparently already determined that he has no documents that would be responsive to the majority of the requests.

“If Prince Andrew truly has no documents concerning his communications with Maxwell or Epstein, his travel to Florida, New York, or various locations in London, his alleged medical inability to sweat, or anything that would support the alibis he gave during his BBC interview, then continuing with discovery will not be burdensome to him at all.”

Andrew’s lawyers stated that some of the documents requested are already publicly available.

Meanwhile, Prince Andrew was dealt a blow yesterday when his motion to put Ms Roberts on the stand was denied by Judge Kaplan who cited his already “extensive” requests to find out information.

His lawyers said they needed to determine if Ms Roberts lived in Australia, where she now is, or the US.

If not the US, the court may not have jurisdiction over her case, the prince’s lawyers argued.