Prince Andrew to continue work on mentor scheme, says palace

Buckingham Palace has risked reigniting the controversy surrounding Prince Andrew a day after he stepped down from public duties by announcing he would continue his work with a business mentoring initiative.

The Duke of York will continue to be involved with Pitch@Palace, which has held events at Buckingham and St James’s palaces, according to the statement, “but will look at how he takes this forward outside of his public duties, and outside of the palace”.

“Naturally there will be a transition period while this takes place,” said Buckingham Palace.

The move to retain Prince Andrew’s links to the initiative, which corporate partners such as BT have been abandoning in recent days, muddies the water of what had appeared to be a clean break from royal duties.

It also signals a desire on the part of the palace to protect what was seen by some as a successful scheme, which builds ties between the corporate world and tech startups. At least one backer had suggested to the Guardian that Andrew could make way for another royal, such as Prince Harry or William.

Meanwhile, the University of Huddersfield announced the prince’s decision to stand down immediately as chancellor after a student panel voted for his resignation from the role.

In his statement on Wednesday announcing he was standing down from public duties, the Duke of York said he was willing to help “any appropriate law enforcement agency” with their investigations after what he accepted was his “ill-judged association” with Epstein.

Lisa Bloom, a lawyer representing five of Epstein’s victims, demanded further action by the prince.

In a tweet she called on him and his staff to appear for civil depositions and produce all relevant documents about his contact with Epstein.

Later, when asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether she would approach Prince Andrew to serve him with a subpoena to provide a legal statement about his time with Epstein, Bloom replied: “We may as part of our investigation.”

She added: “It may be difficult to serve a deposition subpoena on him. But we believe that nobody is above the law, and that everybody should have to answer questions, if they have relevant information, and he clearly does have relevant information.

“I serve deposition subpoenas frequently and people sometimes fight it but eventually they usually have to appear and answer questions.”

Prince Andrew claims he met Epstein through Ghislaine Maxwell – the daughter of the media baron Robert Maxwell – who has been accused of serving as Epstein’s procurer.

Born in Brooklyn in 1953, Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender and financier who died in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He had previously served 13 months in jail after being convicted in 2008 of procuring an underage girl for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.

Epstein’s death came after unsealed documents in New York revealed the extent of his abuse of young women at his home in Palm Beach, New York and the Virgin Islands. An earlier attempt to prosecute him on similar charges had collapsed when authorities granted him an unusually generous deal to plead guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida.

Epstein made his name at the investment bank Bear Stearns before opening his own firm in 1982, managing money for clients with wealth in excess of $1bn. The business came with an intensive social schedule. Epstein positioned himself as a party figure in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, and courted the rich, famous and powerful across America and the world.

Epstein’s circle of friends and acquaintances has included Donald Trump; Bill Clinton; Prince Andrew; Leslie Wexner, founder of the company that owns the Victoria’s Secret lingerie brand; and many other prominent names in law, entertainment and politics.

Asked whether a statement from the prince would be useful for Epstein’s victims, Bloom said: “Absolutely. We know that Prince Andrew had many contacts with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and we think anybody who has had a lot of interaction with them should be speaking not only to law enforcement but to lawyers to the victims, people like me who are doing investigations.”

Related: Key quotes: Prince Andrew on the Epstein scandal

She added: “I also think that all of the staff who work for Prince Andrew, should come and give information and evidence, and that documents should be turned over: emails, texts, calendars, phone logs, travel logs, so that we can get to the bottom of this.”

She said some of her clients were determined to get answers about Epstein’s crimes. She said: “This is very important to women trying to put their lives back together.”

Bloom’s mother and fellow lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents some of Epstein’s victims, said the prince’s statement on Wednesday was not clear about how willing he was to cooperate with investigations against his former friend.

Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight programme she said: “Is he insisting that he be served with a subpoena to testify, or is he willing to speak to law enforcement without being legally required to do so?

“My clients who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein have spoken to law enforcement without being ‘required’ to do so.”

She flagged two possible next steps. “One is the criminal justice investigation to see if charges should be filed in reference to anyone who might have knowingly conspired with Mr Epstein to recruit and to sex traffic underage girls to him.”

The other option was the pursuit of civil lawsuits, like that which she filed on behalf of a woman known as Jane Doe 15, who alleged assault by Epstein when she was aged 15.

Firms including BT and Barclays are among a growing number of businesses, universities and charities that have distanced themselves from the royal since his disastrous Newsnight interview on Saturday.

The prince was criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards Epstein’s victims and a lack of remorse over his friendship with the disgraced financier, who took his own life while in prison earlier this year.

It is understood there have been discussions within the royal family about the situation, with Prince Andrew talking to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

Andrew met with the Queen on Wednesday, visiting her at Buckingham Palace before his decision to step down was announced.

In the Newsnight interview, the prince denied claims he slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, on three separate occasions – twice while she was underage.

He said the alleged encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.

(January 1, 1999)  Beginnings

Andrew is reported as having been introduced to Jeffrey Epstein through mutual friend Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell. Epstein reportedly visits the Queen’s private Scottish retreat in Aberdeenshire

(January 1, 2000)  Sightings

Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein are seen together at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. Later in the year, Epstein and Maxwell attend a joint birthday party at Windsor castle hosted by the Queen

(January 1, 2001) Teenager claims

Virginia Giuffre, then aged 17, claims to have had sex with Andrew in Maxwell’s Belgravia home. Giuffre, whose surname was Roberts at the time of the alleged incidents, says she slept with Andrew on two further occasions, at Epstein’s New York home and at an “orgy” on his private island in the Caribbean

(January 1, 2008)  Epstein jailed

Epstein is jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to prostituting minors

(January 1, 2010) Epstein freed

Soon after his release from jail, Epstein is visited by Andrew in New York. The pair are photographed together in Central Park. Footage emerges years later, reportedly shot on 6 December, that appears to show Andrew inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion waving goodbye to a woman from behind a large door

(January 1, 2011)  Backlash

Andrew quits his role as UK trade envoy following a furore over the Central Park photos

(January 1, 2015)  Claims emerge

Allegations that Andrew had sex with Giuffre emerge in US court documents related to Epstein. The papers, filed in Florida, state that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is under the age of consent in the state. Buckingham Palace denies the allegations.

The claims against Andrew are later struck from US civil court records following a federal judge’s ruling

(January 1, 2019) More claims

Andrew is accused of sexual impropriety by a second alleged Epstein victim, Johanna Sjoberg. She claims he touched her breast inside the US billionaire’s Manhattan apartment in 2001. Buckingham Palace said the allegations were “categorically untrue”.

On 10 August, Epstein is found dead in his jail cell, having killed himself after being charged with sex trafficking.

A pilot on Epstein’s private jet later that month claims Andrew was a passenger on past flights with the financier and Roberts

(November 20, 2019) 

Prince Andrew announces he is to step back from public duties 'for foreseeable future'.

Giuffre said the same alleged sexual liaison began with the duke sweating heavily as they danced at Tramp, the London nightclub.

But the prince said he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat. He said he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre.

When asked if he regretted the “whole friendship with Epstein”, the prince replied: “Now, still not, and the reason being is that the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful.”