04 January 2024 , 03:59
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Prince Andrew has had a second woman's sexual abuse court claims against him made public after a judge unsealed her evidence.
The move thrust the Duke of York back into the scandal surrounding his paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein while extinguishing any remaining hope the royal recluse harboured of returning to public life.
Andrew was forced into exile after his mother, the Queen, stripped him of his titles and patronages in January 2019 - 20 months before her death - over his friendship with the convicted Wall Street financier. On Wednesday, the Prince, 63, was named by American hairdresser Johanna Sjoberg as the man who allegedly groped her breast in front of Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual impropriety made against him.
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Prince Andrew has already been implicated and has denied any wrongdoing (Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) It came as the first batch of 172 people had their names and evidence made public as part of a long-settled defamation lawsuit.
The case was filed in 2015 by Epstein's 'teen sex slave' Giuffre, against Maxwell. Those who gave evidence included Ms Sjoberg, who is known as Jane Doe 162 in the documents.
The justice allowed her evidence to be made public, stating that as the 43-year-old had previously given a newspaper interview detailing her claims against the duke, there was no reason to prevent it from being unsealed. Her deposition now unsealed revealed how Andrew was gifted a Spitting Image puppet of himself by Epstein and Maxwell.
She said: “It looked like him. And she brought it down and presented it to him; and that was a great joke, because apparently it was a production from a show on BBC. “And they decided to take a picture with it, in which Virginia and Andrew sat on a couch.
“They put the puppet on Virginia's lap, and I sat on Andrew's lap, and they put the puppet's hand on Virginia's breast, and Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo."
Seven years ago, Ms Sjoberg sat for a deposition as part of Giuffre's defamation suit, parts of which have already been revealed. Ms Sjoberg, who said she was forced to give "sexual massages to Epstein and punished if he failed to orgasm," testified the duke groped her breast while Ms Giuffre, now 40, sat on his other knee.
Ghislaine Maxwell is currently in prison after being found guilty of luring underage girls to Epstein's island (SDNY/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)In papers submitted to the New York court as part of the defamation case, they detail the time when the Prince visited Epstein, who had previously pleaded guilty to child sex offences, in New York over Easter 2001.
The American paedophile had flown Ms Sjoberg and Ms Giuffre from Palm Beach, Florida, where they lived, to Manhattan to help entertain the Prince with Maxwell. While inside the house, she told the court Epstein and Maxwell presented the duke with a Spitting Image puppet of himself.
Maxwell, who turned 62 on Christmas Day, denied Ms Sjoberg's claim, saying: “I never gave him a gift of a puppet. I am not aware of any small handheld puppet that was there. There was a puppet – not a puppet – there was a – I don’t know how would you describe it really. A caricature of that was in Jeffrey’s home.”
Asked if she had used the “caricature” to put its hand on someone’s breast, she said: “I don’t recollect. I recollect the puppet but I don’t recollect anything around the puppet.” However, Ms Sjoberg’s allegation would have allowed the hairdresser to bring a civil claim against Andrew under the New York Adult Survivors (NYAS) Act.
The law was brought in temporarily to allow alleged victims of sexual abuse to bring a case against the attackers despite America's statute of limitations having expired. Ms Sjorberg had until four weeks ago to file a lawsuit against Andrew if she wished, but the deadline passed without her taking action. It saved Andrew from a second civil case in New York.
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The first cost him a reported £12 million in an out-of-court settlement to Ms Giuffre. She sued the Prince in December 2021, less than a week before the expiration of the child version of the New York that provided a two-year window to sue over child abuse dating back decades.
Andrew accepted no liability in the settlement and has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual impropriety made against him. Previously, Ms Sjoberg, from a loving, church-going family, spoke about the incident in a 2007 newspaper interview.
She recalled: "Prince Andrew was there, and Ghislaine and a couple of other girls my age. Andrew was very charming. I didn't know exactly who he was, but I felt that I knew him. She (Ghislaine) came down with a present for him – a latex puppet of him from Spitting Image.
"We had a picture taken. Virginia, another girl there, sat on a chair and had the puppet on her lap. Andrew sat on another chair. I sat on his lap, and he put his hand on my breast.
"Ghislaine put the puppet's hand on Virginia's breast, then Andrew put his hand on mine. It was a great joke. Everybody laughed. Ghislaine made a lot of sexual jokes. She had a very dirty sense of humour."
Talking about her abuse by Andrew's pal Epstein, she added: "I was groomed for it. "I made a pact with the devil in exchange for excitement and glamour. I was only a college student. I was hard-up and foolish."
Ms Sjoberg was studying psychology at Atlantic College in Palm Beach when she was approached on campus by Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell.
Since the defamation was settled, Maxwell, 62, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking as part of a separate criminal case. Epstein was 66 when he died by jail cell suicide in August 2019 as he awaited trial for underage sex trafficking.