Prince Andrew refuses to deny he stayed at Epstein's New York mansion in 2001

Prince Andrew’s spokeswoman recently refused to comment on a report that he stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in New York around the time one of the convicted sex offender’s accusers alleged the Duke of York had underage sex with her. The refusal to repeat the denial comes after the Daily Mail uncovered fax that stated that the prince had three hours of unaccounted-for private time while staying close to Epstein’s home during a working visit to the US. Previously, Prince Andrew had denied staying at Epstein’s £60m home in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, however, the media outlet claimed to have found an afternoon window when the Duke had some down-time on the day he arrived in New York in April 2001. 

In an interview with the Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, Prince Andrew had said, “I wasn’t staying there. I may have visited but definitely didn’t, definitely, definitely no, no, no activity”. However, Virginia Roberts, who was 17 at the time, alleges that Epstein flew her to New York to have sex with Prince Andrew- something he continues to deny. Roberts has alleged that sex took place with Andrew at the billionaire’s home. 

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Prince Andrew’s US trip itinerary

The Mail uncovered an itinerary of the prince’s three-day trip to the United States that April. The media outlet said that it included three hours of “private time” on the afternoon of April 11. Further, they also found flight logs that showed Roberts boarded a plane from Teterboro, New Jersey, to St Thomas in the Caribbean on April 11, meaning she could not have stayed in New York that night. 

The logs also showed that on the same flight were Epstein, who took his own life in jail last year, and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is on remand in the US charge with helping in Epstein’s alleged sex crimes. When asked about the recent reports, Prince Andrew’s spokeswoman, while speaking to The Guardian, denied commenting on the issue. But when asked about the flight logs showing that Maxwell and Epstein were not in New York that evening, she said that the flight logs are public source information and if it shows “they flew out on 11 April and he was there overnight, they weren’t there overnight”. 

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Further, when asked if the Duke of York planned to take any legal action against the media outlet, she again refused to comment. However, it was pointed out that the readers would note that this meant she was not denying that prince stayed at Epstein’s mansion on April 11, the spokeswoman said, “they can note what they like. It’s no comment”.  

Earlier, Roberts had said that she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the prince three times in 2001. The Duke of York has always denied any wrongdoing and has also said that he cannot recall meeting Roberts or having his picture taken with her. However, Daily Mail has claimed that the duke stayed at Epstein’s home on the final night of his visit, but Epstein and Roberts were not at the property at the time. 

(Image: AP)

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