Lib Dem leader and Labour MP condemn royal’s BBC interview, while PM stays quiet
Jo Swinson has led criticism from political leaders over Prince Andrew’s “disheartening” remarks about his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Liberal Democrat leader condemned his use of language about sex and failure to put the late financier’s victims at the centre of his BBC interview.
Continue reading...Accountancy firm not renewing sponsorship, it emerges, after much-criticised TV interview
The accountancy giant KPMG is not renewing its sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s entrepreneurial scheme Pitch@Palace, it has emerged, in the wake of his much-derided interview in which he defended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of York has been heavily criticised as having shown neither contrition nor sympathy for Epstein’s child victims in the BBC Newsnight interview and his suitability as patron to scores of charities and organisations has been called into question as a result.
Continue reading...What was most striking about the Duke of York’s interview with Emily Maitlis? It was a toss-up: his views on sex (it’s a “positive act” for a man, apparently; and if you can’t remember it, ergo it didn’t happen) set off a logical cascade into the abyss (if, by extension, it’s a negative act for women, does that mean we don’t “decide” to do it? In which case, are we always, basically, waiting for it to be done?). His line about adrenaline – that he overdosed on it during the Falklands war, and can therefore no longer sweat – has triggered a race between medics and picture editors to see who can disprove him fastest. His use of the Pizza Express in Woking as an alibi circa 2001 has generated a lot of mirth (check out online reviews since Sunday night). But surely the slam-dunk astonishment lay in what he didn’t say: that he was sorry for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein; or indeed, that he had given them any thought at all.
“There was always something tragicomic to Prince Andrew’s trajectory,” says Catherine Mayer, the author of The Royal Family: Britain’s Resilient Monarchy, and the leader of the Women’s Equality party. “Or at least it was tragicomic until we found out about his association with Epstein, and then the comedy drained away.” The “playboy prince”, they called him in the 1990s, after his divorce from Sarah Ferguson; before the marriage, pretty much from the age of 18, he was known as Randy Andy, or as the Daily Mail put it, “Randy Andy and His Web of Armcandy”.
Continue reading...Lawyers for Epstein’s victims say they were ‘almost completely ignored’ in interview
Prince Andrew is facing a transatlantic backlash over his extraordinary defence of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers who represent 10 of the billionaire predator’s victims branded the royal unrepentant and implausible and demanded that he speak to the FBI.
After the royal’s defiant Newsnight interview on Saturday triggered a disbelieving reaction from the public and the media, the prince was under growing pressure from critics in the UK and US on Sunday who demanded an apology for his conduct and said that his defence of his actions was simply not credible.
Continue reading...If, as many royal observers have claimed, the Duke of York’s decision to submit himself to an Emily Maitlis grilling represented a colossal gamble by a man desperate to make the relentless flow of negative headlines dry up, then it appears he has bet the house on red only for it to come up black.
Prince Andrew’s bizarre defence that he chose to stay at convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s home because it was “convenient” and that it was the “honourable” thing to do has gone down badly in the court of public opinion.
Continue reading...Duke of York claims alibi in interview with Emily Maitlis for Newsnight about Jeffrey Epstein links
The Duke of York claimed on Saturday night that he could not have had sex with a teenage girl in the London home of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell because he was at home after attending a children’s party at Pizza Express in Woking.
Prince Andrew gave the startling explanation in a bombshell interview with Emily Maitlis for BBC’s Newsnight in which he was grilled about his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who has been exposed as a paedophile.
Continue reading...Prince speaks publicly for first time about paedophile financier found dead in prison
Prince Andrew has said that he failed to uphold the standards of the royal family when he visited Jeffrey Epstein after the paedophile’s release from prison, admitting: “I let the side down, simple as that.”
The prince made the statement in an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme, the first time he has spoken publicly about his friendship with Epstein, to be broadcast on Saturday night.
Continue reading...Epstein’s estate is facing multiple lawsuits from women who say he sexually abused them
The executors of the estate of Jeffrey Epstein said on Thursday they had asked a judge to approve the creation of a proposed fund to compensate women the financier was accused of having sexually abused.
The executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, said in a statement that the fund would create a “voluntary, confidential, non-adversarial alternative to litigation”.
Continue reading...Inquiry opened last month after US police found links to sex-trafficking claims in France
Police have searched the Paris apartment of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as part of a French investigation into trafficking claims against the disgraced US financier.
Investigators arrived at Epstein’s luxury 800 sq metre apartment on the exclusive Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe on Monday afternoon and worked through the night to search the premises.
Continue reading...Virginia Giuffre claims prince was participant in disgraced financier’s exploitation of her
An accuser of Jeffrey Epstein has alleged Prince Andrew was “an abuser, a participant” in the disgraced US financier’s exploitation of her as a teenager, in her first television interview.
Virginia Giuffre, formerly Roberts, who was pictured with Prince Andrew in a now notorious photograph, spoke to the US network TV station NBC News about her involvement with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in a New York jail in August while facing fresh child sex trafficking charges.
Continue reading...The computer scientist Richard Stallman has resigned from MIT and the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which he founded and led, after leaked emails appeared to show him downplaying another academic’s alleged participation in the purported sex trafficking of minors by Jeffrey Epstein.
Related: How MIT was complicit in allowing Jeffrey Epstein to launder his reputation | John Naughton
Continue reading...Signe Swenson exposed the story of powerful men and millions of dollars in donations to the school’s Media Lab
“I felt like my job was to protect secrets,” says Signe Swenson, who last week emerged as key witness in the relationship between disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab and its former head Joi Ito.
Ito resigned last week after a picture emerged of institutional efforts to accept and cover up substantial philanthropic donations from Epstein that threaten to devastate the reputation of the famed technology-research centre.
Continue reading...Joi Ito exits after reports claim lab worked to hide extent of financier’s donations
The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has ordered an independent investigation of the ties between a prestigious research lab at the school and Jeffrey Epstein, the influential financier and convicted sex offender.
Joi Ito, the director of the influential MIT Media Lab, submitted his resignation on Saturday, in the wake of continued scrutiny over the center’s financial relationship with Epstein, the university announced in a statement.
Continue reading...Ex-model is one of three women accusing the model scout and friend of Jeffrey Epstein
Thysia Huisman had just turned 18 when, late one evening in September 1991, she arrived before the door of an imposing apartment building on avenue Hoche in central Paris carrying a small backpack and three photographs from her portfolio.
A young would-be model from Leiden in the Netherlands, she was impressed, but also alarmed. “It was very grand,” she says. “A vast, grand apartment, right by the Arc de Triomphe. Fancy furniture, paintings on the walls. But it was his home.”
Continue reading...Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s attorney says picture said to have been taken at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home is authentic and unaltered
A woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein of forcing her to have sex with his powerful friends has denied a claim by allies of Prince Andrew that a notorious photograph of them together was faked.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s attorneys rejected the claim as a “troubling assertion” and reiterated a request to interview Andrew about the late wealthy financier Epstein, who killed himself last month while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Continue reading...It’s unclear who’s named in records, but attorney for unnamed client says they may name people not involved in litigation
A federal judge will discuss plans on Wednesday for unsealing a new trove of court records involving sexual abuse allegations against Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who took his own life last month while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Related: Prince Andrew 'knows what he's done', says Jeffrey Epstein accuser
Continue reading...Royal has previously denied Virginia Giuffre’s accusation that she was forced to have sex with him
An accuser of the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday addressed her accusation that she was coerced into sex with Prince Andrew, saying the royal “knows what he’s done”.
Related: Prince Andrew took a flight on Epstein private jet with Russian model
Continue reading...Up to 30 women are expected to take a judge up on his invitation to speak at a hearing after Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while facing sex trafficking charges.
Related: Prince Andrew took a flight on Epstein private jet with Russian model
Continue reading...Prince Andrew has commented on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, saying he did not “see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to [the] arrest and conviction” of the deceased financier.
Related: 'Boorish and self-centred': little love for Prince Andrew over Epstein links
Continue reading...Investigation to focus on potential crimes against citizens in France and abroad
The chief Paris prosecutor has announced that he is opening an investigation into the rape of minors and a series of other charges linked to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
A statement issued on Friday by the office of Rémy Heitz said the decision to open a preliminary investigation was based on “elements transmitted” to his office and “exchanges with American authorities”.
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