Epstein accuser says Prince Andrew groped her, documents show
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[January 04, 2024]
By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A woman who has said she was victimized by late sex
offender Jeffrey Epstein said Britain's Prince Andrew put his hand on
her breast at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2001, according to court
documents from a civil lawsuit unsealed on Wednesday.
The incident, which has been previously reported by other media outlets
and Andrew has denied, was among the details described in an initial
trove of previously redacted documents that otherwise revealed few new
details about the extent of Epstein's alleged sex trafficking
activities.
More documents are expected to be unsealed or unredacted in the coming
days.
Prince Andrew could not immediately be reached for comment.
Epstein socialized with Wall Street titans, royalty and celebrities
before pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
He took his own life in 2019 at age 66 while awaiting trial on federal
sex-trafficking charges.
Dozens of women have accused Epstein of forcing them to provide sexual
services to him and his guests at his private Caribbean island and homes
he owned in New York, Florida and New Mexico.
The names of more than 150 people mentioned in a lawsuit by Virginia
Giuffre, one of Epstein's most prominent accusers, were kept under seal
for years until a federal judge ruled last month that there was no legal
justification to keep them private.
In a deposition, Giuffre said she had sex with several politicians and
financial leaders.
Giuffre's deposition named several prominent figures who have previously
denied her allegations, including hedge-fund owner Glenn Dubin,
billionaire U.S. businessman Tom Pritzker and the late New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson.
She said she also had sex with other political leaders whose names she
could not remember.
Dubin could not immediately reached for comment. A spokesperson for
Pritzker said the businessman "continues to vehemently deny" the
allegation.
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An exterior view of the Metropolitan Correctional Center jail where
financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in the Manhattan
borough of New York City, New York, U.S., August 10, 2019. REUTERS/Jeenah
Moon/File Photo
Sigrid McCawley, Giuffre's lawyer, said some questions about who
enabled Epstein have still not been answered.
"The unsealing of these documents gets us closer to that goal," she
said in a statement on Wednesday.
In a separate deposition, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg said
Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast to pose for a photo with
Epstein, Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend.
Sjoberg said the photo also included a puppet that said "Prince
Andrew" on it.
This allegation was previously reported by the Mirror in 2020.
Andrew has been stripped of most of his royal titles due to his
association with Epstein.
He settled a civil lawsuit with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed
sum, and has denied wrongdoing.
The list stems from a long-settled defamation lawsuit that Giuffre
filed against Maxwell.
Maxwell, the daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, is
serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for
Epstein. She is appealing her conviction.
Giuffre accused Maxwell of recruiting her when she was underage for
Epstein to abuse.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, who is overseeing the case,
ruled that some names would remain confidential, including those of
people who were underage when Epstein abused them.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; additional
reporting by Jack Queen, Joseph Ax, Tom Hals and Nupur Anand;
Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Daniel Wallis
and Lincoln Feast.)
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