Prince Andrew was further humiliated last night after it emerged that sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell had been instructed to search her phone, computer and thousands of emails for his name, along with the words 'sex toy' and 'erotic'.
Explosive court documents reveal how Maxwell's lawyers, under orders from a US court, were ordered to search all her electronic devices for any mention of the Prince, other acquaintances of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and a string of vile words.
These include 'Prince', 'Andrew', 'Duke', York', 'Royal', 'minor', 'massage', 'slave', 'sex', 'nipple' and 'dildo', according to the damning legal papers .
Details of the hugely embarrassing search – part of a 2015 defamation case brought against Maxwell by Andrews accuser Virginia Giuffre, née Roberts – are revealed in a trove of 130 documents, totaling more than 1,300 pages, released this weekend .
It is not known what the search revealed, with Maxwell's lawyers claiming it was a 'wild goose chase'. The case was settled before it went to trial.
Last night a source close to the Duke of York told the MoS how Andrew had been left reeling by the lurid new claims.
“He doesn't have the emotional bandwidth to deal with this,” the source said. 'He has locked himself in a room and has no idea how to react. He's devastated.'
Prince Andrew pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell at Ascot in 2000. Maxwell is now behind bars after being convicted of child sex trafficking
Prince Andrew walked with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein in New York's Central Park in 2011. Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
The Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, where Andrew currently lives. Sources say the king is preparing to withdraw funding for the house's private security
On a new day full of astonishing revelations:
- Scotland Yard was urged by a former chief inspector to interview the personal protection officers who accompanied Prince Andrew on trips to meet Epstein
- Epstein's “house manager,” Alfredo Rodriguez, was questioned under oath about whether Prince Andrew and Maxwell were “in a romantic relationship,” legal records show;
- Mr. Rodriguez alleged that “many” photos of Epstein and Andrew posing together were displayed at Epstein's Florida mansion, where the financier abused hundreds of young girls;
- King Charles is reportedly preparing to withdraw funding for security at his brother's 30-room Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge;
- New emails reveal the panic that gripped Maxwell and her advisers after Andrew was first accused in lawsuits of abusing Giuffre;
- Maxwell swam naked on Epstein's Caribbean island, where his recruits had to massage her while she undressed, documents allege.
The fuss surrounding Andrew, who is still eighth in line to the throne, does not appear to have abated after hundreds of documents were made public in three days.
The court files were sealed in 2017 but published after requests from media companies.
They include claims that the Prince knew about Epstein's sex trafficking, committed “acts of sexual abuse,” enjoyed daily massages and participated in an “underage orgy.” Andrew has vehemently and repeatedly denied all allegations against him.
Scotland Yard said last week it would not rule out allegations of sexual assault against Prince Andrew, while the release of the court documents would have strengthened the king's decision that his brother will never be allowed to resume his royal duties.
A series of documents released in the early hours yesterday revealed a bitter legal battle between Giuffre and Maxwell's lawyers over a 2016 court order for a search of Maxwell's 'electronic media'.
In a letter to Maxwell's legal team, Meredith Schultz, one of Ms. Giuffre's lawyers, demanded that Maxwell's email and iCloud accounts be combed, along with her computers, phones and tablets.
Ms Schultz then listed 368 words to look for, including Prince Andrew, his initials 'PA' and 'Clinton' – a reference to former US President Bill Clinton. There is no evidence that Clinton did anything wrong.
The list also includes words that are sexually explicit or suggestive of abuse, including “erotic,” “masturbate,” “servitude,” “youth,” “schoolgirl” and “pedophile.”
Maxwell's attorney Laura Menninger later objected to “the sheer number” of search terms, complaining that “conducting a search on Ms. Maxwell's devices using all 368 terms will take more than a week.”
She emphasized how difficult it is to search for common words such as “bed”, “lingerie” and “bath” and the names of lawyers.
Ms Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with the prince three times when she was 17, including in a bath at Maxwell's London mansion in 2001. The claims have been repeatedly and strenuously denied by Andrew.
Mrs. Menninger complains in one letter that Giuffre had sent Maxwell “on a costly, time-consuming and troublesome wild goose chase that yielded not even one quill.” It's time to call off the hunt.'
However, the legal documents reveal that in order to comply with the court order, a search was conducted for 110 words – including Andrew's name and the sexually explicit words.
Documents in the latest batch of Epstein files show that “andrew,” “prince” and “royal” were among the terms searched for in Maxwell's emails (left). Tasteless terms referring to sexual acts and pedophilia were also looked up (right)
Prince Andrew pictured with Victoria Giuffre (then Roberts) in London in 2001, next to Ghislaine Maxwell
The search led to the discovery of approximately 9,000 documents and messages, although it is not known whether Andrew appears in them.
The latest cache of documents shows Maxwell's continued efforts to find new women and girls to satisfy Epstein, including having threesomes with other women.
They also reveal how Tony Figueroa, Giuffre's ex-boyfriend, claimed that Maxwell would call him to ask if he had found girls to take to Epstein and how Giuffre, Maxwell and Epstein “were all intimate with each other multiple times” .
Figueroa was paid between $200 and $300 for each new girl he brought to meet Epstein at the financier's $18 million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a separate statement, Rodriguez told investigators that there were “many photos” of Andrew proudly displayed at Epstein's mansion, dubbed “the house of horrors.”
Meanwhile, Johanna Sjoberg – who was recruited by Maxwell when she was a 20-year-old student – said in another document that she was paid £200 for each massage from the couple, which was increased by £100 when she did something sexual for Epstein. .
In her 2016 deposition, Sjoberg recalled giving Maxwell between five and 10 massages – with the disgraced socialite lying naked under a towel.
Asked if Maxwell had ever been naked or topless at a pool, Ms. Sjoberg replied: “I don't remember. She was naked when she went swimming in the ocean.”
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 of sex trafficking and recruiting teenage girls for Epstein. The financier committed suicide in prison just weeks after his arrest in July 2019 for sex trafficking.
Prince Andrew did not respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Daisy Graham-Brown and Sam Merriman.
