Details on Prince Andrew allegations emerge from new Jeffrey Epstein documents — but no U.K. police investigation

London’s Metropolitan Police mentioned they weren’t conducting any new investigations into Prince Andrew after a 2016 deposition accusing him of groping a girl’s breast was launched this week. The deposition was amongst a whole bunch of pages of largely unredacted paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein unsealed this week below the order of a choose in a now-settled defamation case introduced by Virginia Giuffre, one in all Epstein’s victims.

What the paperwork say

Within the deposition, Johanna Sjoberg alleges she was groped by Prince Andrew in 2001, when she was 21. The allegation is just not new, and BBC Information experiences Buckingham Palace beforehand referred to as her allegations “categorically unfaithful.”

Sjoberg says she met Andrew when she was dropped at Epstein’s residence in New York in 2001 by Ghislaine Maxwell. Virginia Giuffre, whose lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexual abuse was settled out of courtroom in 2022, was additionally on the home on the time.

Sjoberg mentioned she initially did not know who the British royal was, till Maxwell took her to get a caricature puppet of him from a BBC present. Then, she mentioned, she sat on Andrew’s lap, whereas Giuffre sat beside him on the sofa with the puppet in her personal lap. The group took a photograph with the Prince Andrew puppet groping Giuffre’s breast, and Andrew himself groping Sjoberg’s.

In an excerpted transcript from a deposition of Maxwell launched among the many paperwork unsealed this week, she seemingly confirmed the existence of the puppet — which she referred to as “Not a puppet. I do not understand how you’d describe it. A caricature of Prince Andrew that was in Jeffrey’s residence.” When requested concerning the incident Sjoberg described, she mentioned, “I do not recollect. I recollect the puppet however I do not recollect something across the puppet,” earlier than saying once more it was a “characterization of Andrew.”

Response within the U.Ok.

“We’re conscious of the discharge of courtroom paperwork in relation to Jeffrey Epstein,” London’s Metropolitan Police mentioned in an announcement. “As with every matter, ought to new and related data be dropped at our consideration we’ll assess it. No investigation has been launched.”

Virginia Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her on three separate events when she was 17, which have been among the many data included within the paperwork launched this week. Prince Andrew denied the allegations and claimed to don’t have any recollection of assembly Giuffre, although the 2 have been photographed collectively when Giuffre was a young person.

Graham Smith, CEO of the British anti-monarchy group Republic, mentioned in an announcement that he had reported Prince Andrew to police.

“So far there seems to have been no critical legal investigation, no interview of the accused or different witnesses and no clear justification for taking no motion,” Smith mentioned, calling on authorities to look into the allegations in opposition to Prince Andrew.

“Given the seriousness of the incidents, the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, Andrew’s cost of an estimated £12m to Guiffre and the associated accusations from different victims it appears there should be grounds for a full legal investigation into these occasions and people concerned,” he mentioned.