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London’s Metropolitan Police stated they weren’t conducting any new investigations into Prince Andrew after a 2016 deposition accusing him of groping a lady’s breast was launched this week. The deposition was amongst lots of of pages of largely unredacted paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein unsealed this week beneath the order of a decide in a now-settled defamation case introduced by Virginia Giuffre, one in all Epstein’s victims.
What the paperwork say
Within the deposition, Johanna Sjoberg alleges she was groped by Prince Andrew in 2001, when she was 21. The allegation isn’t new, and BBC Information experiences Buckingham Palace beforehand known as her allegations “categorically unfaithful.”
Sjoberg says she met Andrew when she was delivered to Epstein’s dwelling in New York in 2001 by Ghislaine Maxwell. Virginia Giuffre, whose lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexual abuse was settled out of courtroom in 2022, was additionally on the home on the time.
Sjoberg stated she initially did not know who the British royal was, till Maxwell took her to get a caricature puppet of him from a BBC present. Then, she stated, she sat on Andrew’s lap, whereas Giuffre sat beside him on the sofa with the puppet in her personal lap. The group took a photograph with the Prince Andrew puppet groping Giuffre’s breast, and Andrew himself groping Sjoberg’s.
In an excerpted transcript from a deposition of Maxwell launched among the many paperwork unsealed this week, she seemingly confirmed the existence of the puppet — which she known as “Not a puppet. I do not know the way you’d describe it. A caricature of Prince Andrew that was in Jeffrey’s dwelling.” When requested concerning the incident Sjoberg described, she stated, “I do not recollect. I recollect the puppet however I do not recollect something across the puppet,” earlier than saying once more it was a “characterization of Andrew.”
Response within the U.Okay.
“We’re conscious of the discharge of courtroom paperwork in relation to Jeffrey Epstein,” London’s Metropolitan Police stated in an announcement. “As with all matter, ought to new and related data be delivered to our consideration we are going to assess it. No investigation has been launched.”
Virginia Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her on three separate events when she was 17, which had been among the many data included within the paperwork launched this week. Prince Andrew denied the allegations and claimed to don’t have any recollection of assembly Giuffre, although the 2 had been photographed collectively when Giuffre was an adolescent.
Graham Smith, CEO of the British anti-monarchy group Republic, stated in an announcement that he had reported Prince Andrew to police.
“To this point there seems to have been no critical prison investigation, no interview of the accused or different witnesses and no clear justification for taking no motion,” Smith stated, calling on authorities to look into the allegations towards Prince Andrew.
“Given the seriousness of the incidents, the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, Andrew’s cost of an estimated £12m to Guiffre and the associated accusations from different victims it appears there should be grounds for a full prison investigation into these occasions and people concerned,” he stated.
Jeffrey Epstein Case
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