A PHOTOGRAPH showing Prince Andrew with his arm round ‘sex slave’ accuser Virginia Roberts
The Duke of York has previously claims he has ‘no recollection’ of the photograph being taken at Ghislaine Maxwell’s Belgravia home in 2001.
Ms Roberts says the picture shows the pair together on the first floor of Ms Maxwell’s home on the night she was forced to have sex with him as a 17-year-old in March 2001.
The Duke of York claimed last month in a BBC Newsnight interview that he had ‘no recollection’ of the picture being taken or of ever meeting Virginia Roberts.
But legal papers shown on a BBC Panorama documentary tonight show how an ex-partner of Virginia remembers being shown a copy of the picture just months after it was taken.
Ms Roberts told the programme a date on the back of the photo shows it was printed on March 13, 2001 – just two days after it was taken.
She said: “It’s an authentic photo. There’s a date on the back of the it from when it was printed.
“The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses.
“Like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is.
“He knows what happened. I know what happened and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me.”
PRINCE’S LINKS WITH PAEDO
Epstein was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008 and was arrested for alleged sex trafficking earlier this year before taking his life in prison in August.
Prince Andrew was friends with Epstein and claims he went to stay at his New York home three years after the billionaire’s conviction to tell him they could no longer be friends.
Ms Roberts also told the Panorama documentary her time with Epstein was “really scary”.
Pictures showed Virginia Roberts with Epstein at parties as a 17-year-old
Andrew denied the claims during a BBC Newsnight interview last month
She said: “I implore the people in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being OK.
“This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked. This is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys’ royalty.”
And she said of Andrew’s denials: “The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses.
“Like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or uh he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein.
“I mean come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is.”He knows what happened, I know what happened.
“And there’s only one of us telling the truth.”
CAR CRASH INTERVIEW
In a car-crash interview with Newsnight this month, Andrew denied ever meeting Virginia and claimed he was at a Pizza Express in Woking on the night he was said to have done so.
He also dismissed her claims that he sweated heavily as they danced at the club saying an overdose of adrenaline during the Falklands War left him with a medical condition that meant he could not sweat.
And he suggested a photo of them together could have been faked.
The Duke of York, 59, has vehemently denied the accusations against him, branding them “false” and “without foundation”.
He was forced to step down from royal duties following his disastrous interview with Emily Maitlis on November 16 with charities and businesses dumping him as their patron in the fallout.
He was widely criticised for failing to show remorse for his friendship with Epstein or empathy for the paedos victims.
Epstein was found dead in his New York prison cell in August as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
Virginia initially made her claims against Andrew in court papers in Florida but they were struck from US civil court records.
Buckingham Palace has branded the allegations “false and without any foundation”, stating: “Any suggestion of impropriety with under-age minors” by the duke was “categorically untrue”.
Prince Andrew had faced criticism over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
