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Amnesia.
Despite Photo, Prince Andrew Has ‘No Recollection’ Of Meeting Epstein Sex Crimes Accuser, Virginia Roberts
The teenager at the centre of a Royal sex abuse scandal was introduced to the Queen in London, her father has claimed.
Virginia Roberts, the alleged underage "sex slave" of Prince Andrew's billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein, was "so excited" to meet the Queen, her father told The Sun.
Sky Roberts, 58, said: "Virginia told me a few years back that she met Prince Andrew when she went to London.
"She also said while they were there she met the Queen.
'Sex slave' Virginia Roberts 'went to hospital with internal bleeding following Jeffrey Epstein orgies' - as she claims paedophile 'graded' her performance after she slept with Prince Andrew
New documentary airs claims Virginia Roberts had sex with Andrew after photo
She said in a court document that she felt 'graded' by Epstein after the meeting
Programme also unearthed medical records that appear to support abuse claims
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7599239/Virginia-Roberts-says-Prince-Andrew-sex-moments-photo.html
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"TV grilling for prince at palace" is the headline in the Daily Express, while the Daily Mail says he was "machine-gunned" with questions about everything from his family to his sex life in "excruciating detail".
The Daily Mirror says Buckingham Palace is braced "for a potential backlash" over the interview, after months of issuing strong denials over the scandal involving the Duke of York's links to the disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in prison in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Royal sources tell the Daily Telegraph that Prince Andrew decided to grant the BBC access in the hope it might "draw a line" under the affair before his 60th birthday next year.
The paper adds that he reportedly overruled aides who thought it was a bad idea to go in front of the cameras.
The i newspaper describes it as a huge but necessary gamble amid despair among the duke's closest supporters that his response to the allegations has been "inept".
The motives behind Prince Andrew's decision to speak to the BBC are explored in the inside pages.
"This is more than just an air-clearing exercise," writes Richard Kay in the Daily Mail. "It is the act of a gambler - and the stakes could not be higher".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-50441757
EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew was pictured at Epstein's home in December 2010
Smiling Prince Andrew looks relaxed and at home as he waves a female guest off at the door of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious New York sex lair.
He was pictured after the billionaire had left the property – which victims described as being full of pornographic and bizarre ornaments – with another female who looked to be in her teens, shivering in a thin jumper while he wore a thick coat.
The footage was shot in December 2010, a day after the infamous image of Andrew with Epstein in the city’s Central Park, following his jail release.
The park photo embarrassed Buckingham Palace as the Duke of York faced calls to explain why he had not broken links with his disgraced pal. And Buckingham Palace has been quick to deny claims two of Epstein’s alleged victims have made against him since.
One question being asked is how the bizarre features in Epstein’s New York home did not seem to ring alarm bells. Visitors to the £70million, nine-storey Manhattan property, which included a steady stream of young women, said it was as weird as Epstein himself – who talked of having his **** cryogenically frozen and seeding humanity with his DNA.
The entry foyer where Andrew stood to wave off the brunette was decorated with rows of framed artificial eyeballs. Close by hung an oil painting of ex-President Bill Clinton in red heels and the semen-stained blue dress that Monica Lewinsky wore when she performed a sex act on him.
A chandelier had a life-size female doll hanging from it and his bathroom had prosthetic breasts on the wall so he could play with the nipples while he bathed.
A creepy chessboard featured customised figurines modelled on his female staff, apparently dressed suggestively. Behind Epstein’s desk was a 1905 painting by Kees van Dongen called Femme Fatale, showing a woman cupping her exposed left breast.
And another large painting showed Epstein himself in a prison surrounded by barbed wire and gun-toting guards – which he said was “to remind me I could go back to prison any time”.
But Andrew apparently brushed off all these indications about Epstein, as he did when others asked him.
In a 2011 Vanity Fair article about his relationship with the pervert, a friend of the pair was quoted as saying: “I remember when Andrew and Jeffrey became friends.
“Jeffrey had Andrew put on a pair of sweatpants for the first time. He had him wear blue jeans. It was Jeffrey who taught Andrew how to relax. After Jeffrey was convicted, I phoned Andrew and told him, ‘You cannot have a relationship with Jeffrey.’ And he said, ‘Stop giving me a hard time, you’re such a puritan.’
“Our conversation descended into a screaming match and Andrew said, ‘Leave me alone, Jeffrey’s my friend, being loyal to your friends is a virtue’.”
An alleged victim, aged 14, and her parents claimed Epstein molested her at his mansion in Palm Beach, where bathrooms were stocked with soaps shaped like male and female genitalia.
Since the 2010 Central Park photo emerged, two of Epstein’s alleged victims have accused Andrew of impropriety. “Sex slave” Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, claimed she was “lent out” to the Duke for sex on three occasions – one of them in London.
And Johanna Sjoberg had alleged that he groped her breast at Epstein’s New York home when she was 21.
But despite the repeated denials of wrongdoing, Andrew and the palace have yet to explain the photo of him with his arm around Ms Giuffre, then 17, in London in 2001 – and why he did not sever his ties with Epstein once he was a registered sex offender.
A month later, Epstein and Maxwell are believed to have attended a bumper royal birthday bash at Windsor, marking Andrew’s 40th, Princess Anne’s 50th, Princess Margaret’s 70th and Prince William’s 18th.
That autumn, Andrew was a guest at a Halloween “hookers and bondage” party in Manhattan, where Maxwell dressed as a prostitute.
And in December that year, the Prince hosted a birthday party for Maxwell at Sandringham, which Epstein attended. All three then went to Thailand to celebrate the New Year.
Other encounters between Andrew and Epstein are believed to have taken place at the Queen’s Norfolk estate and a dinner in Saint Tropez.
The Duke’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, also faced questions over links to Epstein after taking £15,000 from him while in debt – although after he was exposed she said she regretted it and vowed to return it. Meanwhile, Epstein’s suicide appeared to have brought Andrew and Sarah closer. They were yesterday holidaying in Sotogrande, in Spain’s Andalusia.
Virginia Roberts alleged in court papers in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is under the age of consent in the state.
She claimed she had sex with the duke "three times, including one orgy" in London, at Epstein's home, and at an "orgy" on his private island in the Caribbean.
However, the Palace said the allegations are "false and without any foundation", stating that "any suggestion of impropriety with under-age minors" by the duke was "categorically untrue".
Epstein was a registered sex offender after pleading guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges of unlawfully paying a teenage girl for sex.
However that conviction was also shrouded in controversy, as he pleaded guilty in exchange for the justice department's agreement not to prosecute him on similar charges.
He served 13 months in jail and agreed to register as a sex offender under the 2008 plea deal, which is now widely seen as too lenient.
Epstein's death sparked outrage as he was facing a 45-year sentence if convicted of multiple counts of sexually abusing under-age girls.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/prince-andrew-appalled-over-ex-friend-jeffrey-epstein-004400026.html
Susie Boniface: Prince Andrew tries to do a Diana and it all goes horribly wrong
Seeking public support when you're the wronged woman in a nationally-important marriage is one thing. Asking for sympathy when you've been hanging out with child rapists is laying it on a bit thick
The room has been carefully chosen, and any signs of opulence removed.
All that remains are two priceless gold-and-silk brocade dining chairs, priceless masterpieces, a priceless 200-year-old occasional table, and a priceless Persian rug, which is the same size as an Olympic swimming pool and has the same pattern as that seen on the pavement outside takeaways with poor food hygiene ratings about 3am.
Sitting in the harsh glare of an immense Louise XIV chandelier is Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward Windsor, AKA the Duke of York, AKA Air Miles Andy, AKA Major Family Embarrassment Because Of That Unfortunate Business With The Paedophile.
And he wants you to feel sorry for him, because he is subjecting himself to the withering questions of TV's most icy interrogator, Emily Maitlis.
Great efforts have been made to make a Royal palace look as stripped-back as a Fishlake cottage whose inhabitants had to move all the most expensive stuff upstairs in a hurry. But attempts have also been made to pre-programme the prince - once accused in leaked diplomatic cables of being sweary, rude and stupid - not to say anything which is sweary, rude or stupid when he is on Panorama.
Just in case he doesn't do as instructed, they have given him an invisible ear piece connected to media adviser in a side room, through which he will be fed lines if things get sticky.
He has been powdered, ironed, smoothed, delinted, anti-perspiranted and laced into a fresh corset. There is a brief silence, and then Maitlis launches her first missile.
"What a lovely home. Where did you buy the carpet?"
MAITLIS: "Why did you meet Jeffrey Epstein for a second time?"
PRAT: "I... what?"
MAITLIS: "You met Jeffrey Epstein in 1999, and at that point he had been fired as a trader for violating stockmarket regulations, had been a freelance financial 'bounty hunter' for arms dealers including Adnan Khashoggi, had been involved in one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in US history, and had become a Caribbean tax exile who hung out with Victoria's Secret models. It is possible someone entirely reputable might have introduced him to you, and you had no choice but to shake his hand, but my question is - once you had met this dodgy billionaire, why did you meet him again?"
PRAT: "Um, well, of course I um..."
MAITLIS, witheringly: "Was it the Victoria's Secret models?"
PRAT: "I do not recall..."
MAITLIS, icily: "Only that same year, 1999, your two daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie holidayed on Epstein's Caribbean property which has since become known as Paedophile Island. Did the police security detail, which accompanied them throughout their childhood at your own insistence, and which has to do detailed advance checks for planned visits, mention any concerns to you?"
"No bu gger mentioned it to us, Daddy"
PRAT: "..."
MEDIA ADVISER: "Move it away from the girls. Sympathy for the victims. Mention your own charity work."
PRAT: "I've tremendous sympathy for all Mr Epstein's victims, of which I am one, of course."
MEDIA ADVISER: "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"
MAITLIS, icily: "You were raped too, were you?"
PRAT, soldiering on regardless of screaming in his ear: "Well, yes, in a way, in a way. It was certainly against my will. I think I was controlled, and exploited, because he thought I was stupid and obviously with what we know of him in hindsight, he wanted the sort of people around him whose names were enough to shield him from scrutiny. D'you know, he even flew me across some international borders, so in fact as I have found out through my extensive work with charities in this area, I was trafficked."
MAITLIS, witheringly: "You were trafficked."
PRAT: "As I've said before, I deplore the exploitation of any human being, and particularly one feels that of course when one is the one being exploited."
MEDIA ADVISER: "Ohweresof***ed."
"Oh he said WHAT?
MAITLIS, disbelievingly: "So the 3 times that published flight logs show Virginia Giuffre Roberts was in the same places that you were, at times that her diary which has been seized by the FBI records that she had sex with you, during episodes in which SHE says SHE was trafficked and forced into having sex with you because you were a valuable friend of her employer who wanted to keep you sweet, you're saying he was trafficking YOU and forcing YOU to have sex with HER because... she was a 17-year-old employee who he needed to keep sweet?"
MEDIA ADVISER: "Quick, blame the media!"
PRAT: "The media has a large role to play here, and frankly because they are so vile to my family and I, hounding us through tunnels and so on, hiding in trees in parks and lurking around airports trying to catch us out with the most innocent of misunderstood things, the most purposeful of carbon footprints gained only in serving our country, that you know when they come to one with pictures of one with someone then one sort of shrugs, doesn't one, and tells them to sod off."
MAITLIS, with look of someone trying to extract a paperclip from cold sputum without touching it: "So because the press criticises you for things, when they criticised you for hanging out with a paedophile you shrugged it off as a lie? Even though you were, in fact, hanging out with a paedophile?"
PRAT: "But I didn't know that, Emily!"
MAITLIS: "The pictures you refer to, of you with Mr Epstein, were taken in late 2010. By that point, he had been accused, raided, tried, agreed a plea deal to soliciting a minor for prostitution, sentenced, jailed, and released on the proviso he go nowhere near schools or playgrounds. That's not speculation. That's highly-publicised due process."
MEDIA ADVISER: "Do the Bill Clinton thing we discussed."
PRAT: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
MEDIA ADVISER: "I MEANT LEAN FORWARD AND LOOK SINCERE! F***!"
MAITLIS: "You're denying you made love to her?"
MEDIA ADVISER: "Don't answer that, for f***s sake."
PRAT, trying to smile ruefully: "Well, whatever love means."
MEDIA ADVISER: "Oh my good God."
[sound of head meeting wall]
MAITLIS: "Your Highness, it's also been reported that Mr Epstein and some of the young women he travelled with were invited to stay with you at Balmoral and Sandringham, and to attend family birthday parties attended by the Queen. Is that true?"
PRAT: "Many people attend parties at Royal residences all year, many thousands in fact, and I honestly can't remember them all. There's probably more than one paedophile! Ha ha!"
MAITLIS: "Are you saying paedophiles, plural, get access to the Royal Family?"
PRAT: "No, no, not at all, it's just that, you know, they're capable of slipping under one's radar, that's how they get away with it, isn't it, we are all just human. If you **** princes, do we not bleed?"
MAITLIS: "In 2009 you attended Mr Epstein's get-out-of-jail party in New York. It was organised by the woman subsequently accused of being his sexual fixer, Ghislaine Maxwell, and attended by celebrities including Woody Allen, who at that point had been accused of molesting his own daughter. Most normal humans would refuse that invitation, but you thought that party was a good idea, did you?"
MEDIA ADVISER: "Right, screw it, talk about airbrushing, photoshop, you know, fake news, anything..."
PRAT: "IT'S NOT MY FINGERS IN THE PICTURE!"
If the glove doesn't fit, you can still wear it
MAITLIS, witheringly: "Don't you have staff who check out the people you meet? Did any of them mention any of this? I mean, there are courtiers who know what's coming up in the next series of The Crown, surely there's someone to Google the man lending you a jet?"
MEDIA ADVISER: [dead air]
PRAT: "..."
MAITLIS: "Your Highness?"
PRAT, like newborn foal attempting to walk: "Um."
MAITLIS, icy again: "Was it the staff who had sex with a 17-year-old, or you?"
"Oh, he's an even bigger prat than me!"
MAITLIS: "You brokered a deal for him to give your broke ex-wife £15,000, which she later apologised for as 'a gigantic error of judgement'. You were forced to leave your role as a trade envoy. Questions were asked in Parliament. You've been named in court papers, accused publicly, challenged by Ms Giuffre Roberts to sue her for defamation. The national press has covered your links with this man extensively, for 8 years now. Why has it taken you so long to confront the issue? Because it makes you look guilty, doesn't it? If you were heir to the throne, the monarchy itself would now be in danger because of your links to a child rapist, wouldn't it?"
PRAT: "I don't think Charles really wants to be king. I'd rather be a duke of hearts, you know, because I love people too easily. That's my problem. I was seduced by the glamour, my face was on the tea towels, how was I to know this beautiful young girl wasn't crazy for my 41-year-old body? It turned out, of course, there were 3 of us in that orgy, so it was a bit crowded. Or it might have been 9."
MAITLIS, witheringly: "You're just a prat, aren't you? A prat who got used and won't admit it."
PRAT: "I was just a prince, standing in front of a girl, asking a billionaire if anyone loved me for myself."
MAITLIS: And CUT. That'll do. Thank you, Your Highness."
Note the secret door in the wall, and a picture of his great-great-great-grandmother glaring at him from over the fireplace
PRAT, taking off his mic: "You're nothing like Martin Bashir, you know."
MAITLIS, icily: "No. I can sing."
** FIN **
While the third series of royal TV drama The Crown - which began yesterday - receives rave reviews in Monday's newspapers, it is not so for Prince Andrew's appearance in his BBC interview with Emily Maitlis.
It was, the Financial Times says, one of the Royal Family's most misjudged forays on television, eclipsing even those of Prince Charles and Princess Diana on the collapse of their marriage.
For the i newspaper, it was the Newsnight horror show - one of the weirdest royal interviews ever.
The Guardian says the prince faced disbelief and fury on both sides of the Atlantic over the defence of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
It says he is under growing pressure from his critics here and in the US to apologise to Epstein's victims.
In the paper's own view, there was a "grotesque mismatch between the Duke of York's language and demeanour, and the gravity of the allegations".
But the Daily Mail reports that the prince has told friends he regrets he did not make it clear he had great sympathy for anyone who was abused by Epstein.
"When I said I was shocked I thought that was implicit," he is quoted as saying.
The Mail's Richard Kay says: "The jaw-dropping insensitivity of it all left millions of viewers, not just in Britain but around the world, asking: why?
"Why on earth had he agreed to do this, and what was he thinking?" He describes the interview as one of the most egregious acts of self-harm by any member of the Royal Family.
According to the Sun, the prince told the Queen that his interview had been a "great success". It was, the paper says, his "craziest" claim yet.
The Times says Buckingham Palace insiders, while taken aback by the reaction, believe it will be possible to judge the impact of the interview only after the dust has settled.
They are bracing themselves for several days of negative publicity, it adds.
In the Times's view, Prince Andrew's "broadcast equivocations were an embarrassment and a disgrace" and "the monarchy stands mired in scandal as a result".
His position is "probably irretrievable", it suggests, adding: "The first step in extricating the monarchy should be his retreat from a public role, and a long period of silence."
The Telegraph's main cartoon shows a puzzled diner at Pizza Express in Woking inquiring about a dish on the menu. "That's our new one", the waitress replies - "the alibi".
And, in its editorial, the paper says that as an exercise in making a bad situation worse, it has few equals.
"Since Prince Andrew saw this interview as an opportunity to put the record straight, it is surprising that he was so ill-prepared for the line of questioning," it says.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-50455087
Newly-revealed video shows Prince Andrew at raucous pool party on the French Riviera in July 2008
Pictures from other events also show him enjoying attention of beautiful women including one licking his face
Andrew's public role in danger after 'car crash' BBC interview where he discussed relationship with Epstein
Denied he met Virginia Roberts - let alone had sex with her - and hinted photo of them together could be fake
Duke said he 'never really partied', avoided 'public affection' and Falklands battles left him unable to sweat
But photos and video from noughties parties show him gripping several women and looking decidedly sweaty
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7695233/Videos-Prince-Andrew-partying-nightclubs-beautiful-young-women-French-Riviera.html
The media also have amnesia, as they appear to have forgotten , until now, why he was often called “Randy Andy”.
As the fallout from Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview continues, the Sun reports that the revelations are taking their toll on the Queen, adding to what it calls her "annus horribilis 2".
It says the monarch is "struggling" without the Duke of Edinburgh - who is "living quietly" on the Sandringham Estate - and Prince Charles, who is on a tour of New Zealand.
The paper says the Royal Family is "driving off a cliff with no one at the wheel", and urges the Queen to "get a grip" before the family is damaged irreparably.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that a US judge is due to rule on whether to release new legal documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein, which will mention the duke by name.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post says charges will be brought as early as this week against two prison guards who were on duty on the night the US billionaire was found hanged in his cell. A preliminary investigation found "irregularities" with the logs, which indicated Epstein had been checked on regularly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-50468558
There is a huge difference between being thought of as a bit of a womaniser, and hanging out with a paedophile, and having sex with under age girls.
And presumably they knew of Epsteins previous conviction as he's well known.
There has to be hard evidence, not just hearsay.
If he's guilty,then so be it.
If he had sex with a 17year old,I wouldn't be classing him as a paedophile,although technically in some parts of the States he would be.
If he had sex with many girls under age, then he's obviously guilty.
I'm not sure he knew the ages of the two girls in the pics.
I'd doubt "sex slaves" would be free to come and go as they please.
Probably guilty of having sex with a couple of girls aged 17, maybe unaware of their age,as I see it on press coverage.
Hes made it worse for himself by coming out with a load of tosh the other night.
You never know, he may be innocent.