Prince Andrew is “appalled” by the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein and denies any knowledge or participation in the financier’s alleged offenses, according to a statement Monday.
Britain’s Mail published footage Sunday that allegedly showed Prince Andrew, Britain’s duke of York, inside Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2010, NBC News reported.
“The Duke of York has been appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement Monday to NBC News. “His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behavior is abhorrent.”
Authorities arrested Epstein and accused him of child sex trafficking on July 6. He died of an apparent suicide on Aug. 10 while in a New York jail. (RELATED: What’s Next For The Epstein Case?)
U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ sex offender registry March 28, 2017 and obtained by Reuters July 10, 2019. (New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout/File Photo/REUTERS)
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, previously named Prince Andrew, 59, in a 2015 defamation lawsuit unsealed earlier in August against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate. Giuffre alleged that she was “forced to have sex with Prince Andrew,” according to NBC News. Johanna Sjoberg, another Epstein accuser, alleged in the documents that Prince Andrew touched her breast while in Epstein’s home in 2001.
Buckingham Palace previously denied the allegations from the 2015 case.
The Metropolitan Police in Britain reviewed evidence in 2015 after the allegations came to light and decided that the “available evidence” would not lead to a “full investigation,” Britain’s Channel 4 News reported.
“The Metropolitan Police Service reviewed the available evidence and the decision was made that this would not progress to a full investigation. As such, the matter was closed,” a spokesperson for Metropolitan Police said according to NBC News.
Numerous high-profile individuals have also been named as co-conspirators in the Epstein case, including a “foreign president,” NBC News previously reported.
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