Prince Andrew mentioned as abuser in US underage sex case

A woman who claims that an American investment banker loaned her to rich and powerful friends as an underage “sex slave” between 1999 and 2002 has alleged in a US court document that she was repeatedly forced to have sexual contact with Prince Andrew.

The accusation against the Duke of York is contained in a document filed this week as part of a long-running lawsuit brought by a group of women who claim to have been exploited by multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, who is known to be a close friend of the Prince, was convicted of soliciting sex with an underage girl in 2008.

Epstein had negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors whereby he agreed to plead guilty to a relatively minor state charge relating to soliciting paid sex with a minor – a 14-year-old girl. The banker served 13 months of an 18-month sentence and is now a registered sex offender.

The document alleges that the woman “was forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor” in various locations including London, New York and on Epstein’s private Caribbean island. The woman is said to have been 17 at the time, a minor under Florida law. The allegations state that Epstein had ordered the girl “to give the prince whatever he demanded,” also instructing her to “report back on the details of the sexual abuse”.

As the prince is not a party to the legal claim, he has not had any opportunity to respond to the allegations so far or file a defence.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the allegations. A palace spokesperson had told the UK press that the royal household would not comment on an ongoing legal matter. "However, for the avoidance of doubt, any suggestion of impropriety with under age minors is categorically untrue", it added.

Although the Epstein case has been decided, this is the first time that the Duke has been named as a participant in any sexual activity with one of the young women trafficked by Epstein.

The woman who made the accusations against the Prince,  known as Jane Doe 3 in court documents,  claims that her contact with Epstein began when she was aged 15. She claimed that she was approached at the age of 15 by Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell and a close friend of Epstein.

According to the court document, “Epstein also sexually trafficked the then-minor Jane Doe, making her available for sex to politically connected and financially powerful people..(in order) to ingratiate himself with them for business, personal, political, and financial gain, as well as to obtain potential blackmail information.”