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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Tom Watling

Ghislaine Maxwell took child sex offender Epstein to England ‘to meet royalty’

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Ghislaine Maxwell took the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to England to introduce him to Prince Andrew and other royalty, unsealed court documents have claimed.

The never-before-seen allegation, made by Alfredo Rodriguez, the manager of Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, casts doubt on Maxwell’s repeated claim that she did not introduce the paedophile to Prince Andrew.

His testimony was unsealed on Friday night, among hundreds of emails and depositions.

During the hearing, Mr Rodriguez, who was jailed in 2012 for hiding Epstein’s little black book of contacts and attempting to sell it, was asked about the relationship between Prince Andrew and Epstein.

He told the court that he knew the pair were associated with one another because there were “many pictures” of the royal scattered around Epstein’s property, dubbed the “house of horrors”.

He later said: “Maxwell took him to England to introduce him to the royalty,” referring to Epstein.

The claim is backed up by a photo from 2006 that shows Epstein, Maxwell and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein at Prince Andrew’s daughter Beatrice’s party at Windsor Castle.

It comes as more unsealed documents revealed that Maxwell’s legal team was ordered to comb through her emails and text messages to look for Prince Andrew’s name as well as terms such as “sex toy” and “slave”.

The court order was made in 2016 during a dispute between Maxwell’s lawyers and Virginia Giuffre’s team. Ms Giuffre has alleged that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her multiple times when she was a minor in the early 2000s.

Other documents recently unsealed from Ms Giuffre’s case include allegations that Prince Andrew took part in orgies with minors on Epstein’s island in the Caribbean, as well as sucking on Ms Giuffre’s toes while the pair were having a bath together.

Prince Andrew denies any wrongdoing. Being identified through the court documents does not mean that the individual was involved in or aware of any wrongdoing by Epstein.

In 2016, Meredith Schult, one of Ms Giuffre’s lawyers, requested Maxwell’s team search for 368 words, including “prince”, “Andrew”, “royal”, “underage”, “massage”, “slave”, “sex”, “nipple” and “dildo”.

It is not known what the search uncovered, with Maxwell’s lawyers claiming it was a “wild goose chase”. The case was settled before it came to court.

Prince Andrew’s representatives have been approached for comment.

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