Nigel Cawthorne - Prince Andrew: The End of the Monarchy and Epstein

Thefirst sign of a hurricane aiming for Buckingham Palace came on 6 July 2019 whenbillionaire businessman Jeffery Epstein was arrested on federal charges relatedto sex trafficking. Twelve years earlier he had pleaded guilty to Florida Statecharges of soliciting girls as young as thirteen for prostitution and servednearly thirteen months in low-security Palm Beach County Jail. The sixty sixyear old now faced as much as forty-three years in a federal jail. Thoughguards were supposed to check on him every thirty minutes, he was found hangedin his cell on 10 August. Verdict: suicide.

Mostof Epsteins influential friends, including Donald Trump and Bill Clinton,distanced themselves from him after his first fall from grace. However, foranother friendPrince Andrewit was too late.

TheUS Appeals Court in New York City released two thousand pages of papers from adefamation suit by Virginia Roberts Giuffre that included her claim thatEpstein had used her as a sex slave while underage and had forced her to havesex with Andrew on three occasions. Even before these allegations, a photographhad surfaced of the prince with his arm around the seventeen year olds nakedmidriff.

Case 18-2868 unsealed papers, US District Court,Southern District of New York

Alsoin the picture was Andrews close friend Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteinsgirlfriend and daughter of disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell, who died undermysterious circumstances after he went missing from his yacht Lady Ghislaineoff the Canary Islands in 1991. Giuffre claimed Maxwell had procured her whenshe was fifteen for Epstein and worked at Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate inFlorida for $9 an hour, and that Maxwell was Epsteins accomplice intrafficking her to Andrew and others. Maxwell called Giuffre a liar, leadingGiuffre to sue for defamation.

Anattempt to get Andrew to testify under oath failed. When the case was settledin May 2017, the court papers were sealed, only to be released by the New YorkCourt of Appeals the day before Epstein died.

Thefirst weeks of August 2019 dramatically changed Andrews life and foreverchanged the light in which these allegations placed the royal family. All of asudden, the Queens favourite son stood at the heart of the Epstein Affair andbecame someone US law enforcement was interested in talking to. The sex crimesthe billionaire orchestrated, involving up to a hundred victims by now,remained under FBI investigationdespite his death. Andrew became the firstBritish royal ever whose extradition to the United States was mooted in thepress.

Butthe scandal went well beyond the fate of one man. Ex-New-York federal prosecutorand Columbia Law School professor Jennifer Rodgers said, In theory, if hecomes to the US, he could be arrested pursuant to a material-witness warrant.Could Andrew ever return to America under these circumstances? Thoughstrenuously denied, Giuffres accusations against Andrew now threatenedBritains monarchy as a wholean institution reliant on broad public supportfor its very existencein an unprecedented way. Like the catholic church,Buckingham Palace found itself yet again engulfed by headlines connected to anunderage-sex scandal.

Therenewed media scrutiny and the attending furore that shook the royal family toits core all stemmed from the princes relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Eachtime the Epstein allegations bounced back into the ether as a result of newfacts, the media storm gathered in potency, and the monarchy lookedincreasingly at risk of its half-cocked handling of the crisis.

In2011, it had first been reported that the prince had partied with Epstein atthe paedophiles New York mansionthree months after the financier had beenreleased from Florida State custody and house arrest at his New York home.Alongside the news the press had published hand-written telephone messages fromhigh school girls for Epstein that had been retrieved in 2005 as materialevidence from the billionaires Palm Beach home. It included one that said,She is wondering if 2.30 ok cuz she needs to stay in school. Another girl,Colleen, phoned to tell Epstein, Going into classwill be out in 45 min.Sarah, a further message read, doesnt know at what time she must come thisnight for the massage.

Epsteinthrew the intimate dinner party in December 2009 for fifteen at his $80 millionManhattan townhouse. Located on 71st Street, just off Central Park, it wasconsidered the largest private residence on Manhattan. The prince was guest ofhonour and stayed at the mansion for a few days. Also present at the bash wereWoody Allen, the subject of sexual misconduct against his seven-year-olddaughter since the 1990s, and Charlie Rose, the CBS anchor who would later losehis job after numerous allegations of being a sexual predator. The prince wasthen photographed strolling with Epstein in Central Park during his stay. Bothwere deep in conversation.

In2019, Prince Andrew again strenuously denied Giuffres allegations and those ofJohanna Sjoberg, whose unsealed evidence first became public the day beforeEpstein died. Sjoberg claimed that the prince had groped her at Epsteins NewYork house in 2001. I just remember someone suggesting a photo, and they toldus to go get on the couch. And so Andrew and Virginia sat on the couch,Sjoberg had testified. As she herself reluctantly sat on Andrews lap, someonetouched Virginias breast and then Andrew groped hers, Sjoberg stated underoath.

She,too, said that Andrews close friend Ghislaine Maxwell lured her from herschool to have sex with Epstein under the guise of hiring her for a jobanswering phones. At Epsteins mansion, she found out that her duties includedbeing a masseuse. He then induced her to perform demeaning sexual services,she said.

Despitethese allegations, the Queen made a show of support for Prince Andrew bysitting alongside her favourite son in a Rolls Royce as she headed for Sundaymorning worship in Balmoral the day after Epstein died.