Prosecutors want Prince Andrew to speak to them about Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘child sex abuse’
US prosecutors have appealed for Prince Andrew to speak to them about their child sex abuse case against Ghislaine Maxwell. New York Southern District Prosecutor Audrey Strauss appealed for the Queen’s favorite son to speak to her investigators at a press conference announcing sex charges against Maxwell, 58, on Thursday.
Strauss said: ‘We would welcome Prince Andrew coming into talk to us. We would like to have the benefit of his statement. Our doors remain open and we would welcome him coming.’
The royal has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, after one of Epstein and Maxwell’s alleged grooming victims claimed to have had sex with him. Andrew has claimed he has offered to help investigators with their case, although they insist no such offer has been forthcoming. Maxwell was arrested in Bedford, New Hampshire, on Thursday morning.
She has been accused of grooming three girls as young as 14 between 1994 and 1997 so her ex-boyfriend Epstein could abuse them. Maxwell is said to have talked about sex with the youngsters, undressed in front of them, watched as Epstein abused them – and joined in the sexual abuse herself on occasion. The youngsters are said to have been targeted in the US and UK.
Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Guiffre, claims to have had sex with Andrew in London in 2001, when she was 17, although he denies the claim, and says he was eating dinner at a pizza restaurant on the night the alleged encounter took place.
Maxwell was charged with six counts of helping entice a child into sexual abuse on Thursday. She also faces charges of perjury over claims she lied about her alleged crimes during an FBI interview in 2016.
Maxwell is set to appear before a federal court later today. FBI Assistant Director for New York William Sweeney revealed on Thursday that investigators had known where the elusive socialite had been all along.
He told reporters that Maxwell was a ‘villain’ who had ‘slithered away’ to a gorgeous property after lying to his agents.
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