Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein and the crucial new witnesses

The Manhattan mansion belonging to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was notorious for its revolving cast of guests.

In his ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew likened the £60 million property to a ‘railway station’ on account of the sheer volume of visitors. Until now, the royal’s New York sojourn in December 2010 — that proved key to his downfall this week — has largely been shrouded in secrecy. 

Today, however, a Daily Mail investigation reveals further details about the extraordinary trip — including a whole new roster of potential witnesses who were present at the time and who could help the ongoing FBI probe into the billionaire’s activities.

Prince Andrew claimed he ‘never saw’ anything there which aroused his suspicions, although there were six women and three men photographed entering and leaving during his stay who could corroborate or disprove his account.

Our exclusive pictures also show what are believed to be three male American protection officers. A closer look shows badges worn by the U.S. diplomatic security detail; their role would most likely have been to protect the visiting royal.

An eyewitness account describes a total of five protection officers that kept a polite distance from Andrew and Epstein as they passed the sealions attraction at the Central Park Zoo.

All of them could provide important testimonies for the investigation.

Here, with the help of our gallery, including previously unpublished photographs, we set out in detail the comings and goings during the Prince’s visit nine years ago. We retraced the pair’s steps during their infamous Central Park walk, during which Andrew claims he ended their association.

Our picture dossier includes close-ups of their intense exchange and a new photograph of them on the glamorous designer shopping street, Madison Avenue.

There is a distinctly frosty atmosphere as the now eighth in line to the throne appears to tap anxiously at his phone while Epstein frowns at his side.

The Duke of York has since admitted it was a mistake to visit the billionaire playboy’s home 17 months after Epstein’s release from jail for child sex offences. 

Following his resignation from public duties this week, the Prince signalled he would speak to FBI detectives investigating Epstein as he readied himself for a subpoena from U.S. lawyers demanding he gives evidence under oath.

Our new pictures could help investigators identify potentially vital new witnesses and establish whether the American paedophile was committing offences following his release from prison.

They could also help the beleaguered royal clear his name of alleged wrongdoing. A former head of Scotland Yard’s royalty protection squad, retired Met Chief Supt Dai Davies, said agents must now take statements from protection officers who accompanied Prince Andrew during his numerous trips to see the disgraced American financier, who died in an apparent suicide in a New York City federal jail in August.

THE TIMELINE

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Prince spent at least five days at Epstein’s 21,000 sq ft mansion on this occasion.

It began with him being guest of honour at a dinner party organised by New York party planner Peggy Siegal. It was to celebrate Epstein’s release from an 18-month prison sentence for having sex with underage girls. No doubt it was an attempt to cleanse Epstein’s image and re-integrate him into Manhattan society.

The guest list included film director Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi, Katie Couric, then the highest-paid female TV anchor in America, George Stephanopoulos, a former White House communications director under President Bill Clinton, comedian Chelsea Handler and TV news host Charlie Rose.

Mr Allen and Mr Rose have both been accused of sexual misconduct, unrelated to the Epstein case.

Miss Handler told the New York Times recently that ‘it was just one of those strange nights’.

She said Miss Siegal had not really made clear who was hosting the event, adding: ‘The invitation was positioned as, ‘Do you want to have dinner with Prince Andrew?’

Another attendee was Eva Andersson-Dubin, the wife of financier Glenn Dubin, who has been accused of having sex with Epstein’s alleged victims — he has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Asked by Newsnight interviewer Emily Maitlis about the party, Andrew said: ‘No, I didn’t go. Oh, in 2010, there certainly wasn’t a party to celebrate his release in December because it was a small dinner party, there were only eight or ten of us I think at the dinner. If there was a party, then I’d know nothing about that’.

Miss Maitlis challenged Andrew: ‘You were invited to that dinner as a guest of honour.’

He replied: ‘Well I was there so there was a dinner, I don’t think it was quite as you might put it but yeah, OK I was there for… I was there at a dinner, yeah.’

Andrew continued his stay at Epstein’s house on Friday, December 3. In the Newsnight interview he downplayed his contact with Epstein: ‘Actually the truth of it is that I actually only saw him for about, what the dinner party, the walk in the park and probably passing in the passage.’

This is what our picture dossier reveals…

Sunday, December 5

11.30am: Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn are seen leaving the East 71st St property, the largest residential home in Manhattan.

11.42am: Susan Hamblin, a long-time confidante of Epstein, is seen leaving. She wears a blue puffer jacket and clutches her mobile phone to her chest, a black designer bag hooked on her arm.

12.07pm: A security guard — wearing sunglasses, grey trousers and a dark jacket — thought to be from the American Diplomatic Security Service, responsible for protecting visiting foreign dignitaries, arrives at the house.

Around 1.40pm: Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein leave the property and head west, entering Central Park on 72nd Street followed by five guards.

A witness told the Daily Mail that the protection officers assumed a star-shaped pattern at a distance to give Epstein and Andrew privacy to talk, instead of staying close as they normally do with dignitaries. Our pictures show Andrew making a claw-like motion with his hand as if trying to reason with Epstein, who is striding forwards ahead of him.

Their body language is striking, suggesting Epstein in dominance and Andrew with a more conciliatory stance.

The two men walk south past a children’s playground and through the Central Park Zoo, where they would have passed the viewing area for sealions, an unlikely venue for a confidential discussion.

They leave the park at 62nd St and head east to Madison Avenue, which they walk up back to 71st St. Our previously unpublished photograph shows them at 2.06pm passing designer fashion store Chloe with Andrew seemingly texting on his phone.

Around 2.15pm: They arrive home, making their total walk nearly half an hour. By that time, according to Andrew, he had ended their friendship.

Addressing the conversation in the Newsnight interview, Andrew said: ‘We had an opportunity to go for a walk in the park and that was the conversation coincidentally that was photographed which was when I said to him, I said, ‘Look, because of what has happened, I don’t think it is appropriate that we should remain in contact’.

‘And by mutual agreement, during that walk in the park, we decided that we would part company and I left, I think it was the next day.

‘And to this day I never had any contact with him from that day forward.’

Asked by Miss Maitlis how Epstein took it, Andrew said that ‘he was what I would describe as understanding’.

He added: ‘He didn’t go into any great depth in the conversation about what I was . . . what he was doing, except to say that he’d accepted, whatever it was, a plea bargain, he’d served his time and he was carrying on with his life if you see what I mean.

‘And I said, ‘Yes, but I’m afraid to say that that’s as maybe but with all the attendant scrutiny on me then I don’t think it is a wise thing to do’.’

9.45pm: Epstein emerges from the front door with a dark-haired woman who appears to be in her 20s wearing a black jacket and an orange scarf. Epstein, wearing a white winter jacket with a fur trim, hugs and kisses her as they walk along.

Monday, December 6

12.39pm: The first picture of the day shows an older security agent with a dark moustache and slicked-back greying hair leaving.

2.06pm: An unidentified brunette woman leaves in dark glasses. She appears to be in her 20s and wears a black leather jacket, a grey beanie hat and carries a large black shoulder bag.

2.09pm: Another security guard, a younger man with dark hair, enters the home. 

3.11pm: A second unidentified woman with long dark hair, seemingly in her 20s, leaves. She wears a red woollen hat and a long grey puffer jacket. She also carries a large black shoulder bag.

3.35pm: A blonde woman in her 30s leaves. She wears a white shirt under a dark brown sheepskin coat with fur trim.

3.46pm: The arrival of a tall woman with long dark hair.

At some point in the afternoon Epstein came out of the house in his white winter jacket. His confidante, Miss Hamblin, also came out and spoke to the driver of a waiting Bentley and appeared to ask him for something.

She returned to the front door, rang the bell and, as it opened, Sarah Kellen, a long-time Epstein associate who has been accused of recruiting young girls for him, left with a smile to Miss Hamblin.

4.30pm: This is when the now infamous video of Andrew cheerily waving to Katherine Keating, the daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, was filmed.

The Duke smiles and waves as Miss Keating, dressed in a long black coat with a large black bag over her arm, steps out of the 15ft-high oak doors.

As she goes to hail a taxi, Andrew peers furtively round the door before disappearing inside.

By this point, no fewer than six women and three security officers had been seen arriving or leaving Epstein’s house during Andrew’s stay. All potential witnesses for the FBI case.

Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis challenged Andrew about whether he saw any suspicious activity.

‘During that time, those few days, witnesses say they saw many young girls coming and going.

‘There is video footage of Epstein accompanied by young girls and you were there staying in his house, catching up with friends.’

Andrew said: ‘I never… I mean if there were then I wasn’t a party to any of that. I never saw them.

‘I mean you have to understand that his house, I described it more as almost as a railway station if you know what I mean in the sense that there were people coming in and out of that house all the time.

‘What they were doing and why they were there I had nothing to do with. So I’m afraid I can’t make any comment on that because I really don’t know.’

Tuesday, December 7

A further young female guest was seen leaving the house in the afternoon.

Her suitcases were loaded into a waiting car and the tag from her incoming flight could still be seen on them.

She apparently came from Russia as the tag said Aeroflot, the Russian national airline, and the date was November 19.

What was apparently intended to be a low-key visit by Prince Andrew to his long-time friend Epstein was blown apart weeks later when the now defunct News of the World printed a picture of them walking together through Central Park.

The circumstances in which the picture was taken, proving beyond any doubt the closeness of their friendship, still puzzles the Duke.

He was asked during the BBC interview about suggestions by his friends that Epstein wanted the photo to be taken and ‘perhaps he’d even set it up’.

Andrew replied: ‘Again, new information coming out since his suicide has made us reappraise that walk in the park.

‘We can’t find any evidence — or my staff and my people and I can’t find any evidence — to suggest that that was what he was doing.

‘I mean you can look at it in so many different ways.

‘The fact of the matter is that somebody very cleverly took that photograph. It wasn’t as far as I remember — nor do my security people remember — anybody being present or close because there were enough security around.’

And so the mysteries surrounding Andrew’s visit to his paedophile friend, and the questions over what he told Newsnight, continue to deepen. 

Queen in defiant show of support for her ‘favourite’ son

By Royal Correspondent for the Daily Mail 

The Queen went riding with Prince Andrew in the grounds of Windsor Castle yesterday in a defiant show of support for her beleaguered son.

The pair were accompanied by two grooms as they rode slowly through the morning rain. The 93-year-old monarch never does anything by chance, as her timely interventions on the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and her plea for national unity over Brexit in January have previously shown.

The Queen also knows every inch of her beloved Berkshire estate and is well aware that the ride would have been captured by photographers. So their ride together can safely be interpreted as a sign of support for her second – and it is said, favourite – son.

For while it was the Queen who effectively ended Andrew’s role in public life by demanding he take a step back from royal duties – with the backing of her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles – it is known to have pained her greatly.

As they both live at Windsor, the Queen sees a great deal of Andrew and his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. 

They frequently pop around to see each other for tea at the weekend, particularly given the long absences of the monarch’s husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, who spends most of his time at Sandringham, her Norfolk estate.

When Buckingham Palace made its historic announcement this week over Andrew’s role, the Queen instructed aides to make clear that while his royal role was effectively over, as her son and eighth in line to the throne, he would continue to remain a member of the Royal Family and would appear by her side at Christmas and events such as Trooping The Colour. Whether there is any public appetite for this remains to be seen. But the message, it seems, from his mother is that while Andrew may be out, he is most certainly not forgotten.

Duke’s project shown door at palace

By Rebecca English and Vanessa Allen for the Daily Mail  

Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace project is to be kicked out of Buckingham Palace in a final humiliation at the end of a catastrophic week for the Duke of York.

It came after the Queen forced him to step down from official duties following his disastrous TV interview about the Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse scandal.

The prince had insisted he would keep working privately on Pitch@Palace – his Dragons’ Den-style funding programme for entrepreneurs – and his technology awards scheme, called iDEA.

But he has now been told it is no longer appropriate for the operations to have office space at Buckingham Palace, a decision said to have the approval of the monarch.

There were reports last night that the prince was being forced to stand down from Pitch@Palace entirely after Barclays bank announced it was withdrawing its sponsorship over publicity about his friendship with Epstein, an American paedophile who committed suicide this summer.

The series of events will now be known simply as ‘Pitch’ and will not be able to boast any palace involvement or use any royal residence, it was claimed. In other developments:

• Andrew was ditched as patron of a string of charities and organisations including the English National Ballet (ENB) and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO);

• Virginia Roberts – who was trafficked as a teenager by Epstein and claims she was forced to have sex with the Queen’s son on three occasions, the first in London when she was 17 – will ‘tell all’ in a BBC Panorama interview on December 2;

• Academics and students at Cambridge University condemned the prince as ‘a man that fails to condemn harassment and sexual misconduct’ and urged Hughes Hall, which made him an honorary don last year, to remove his title;

• It is also understood Andrew will stand down from many of his honorary military appointments. His honorary posts include Admiral of the Sea Cadets and Colonel in Chief of the Yorkshire Regiment.

Yesterday’s events capped one of the Royal Family’s worst weeks for decades. It saw the Queen and Prince Charles team up to cut Andrew loose after his calamitous interview with BBC’s Newsnight over his friendship with Epstein.

A Barclays spokesman said last night: ‘In light of the current situation, we have informed Pitch@Palace that going forward we will, regretfully, no longer be participating in the programme.’

The loss of institutions such as the RPO, which has boasted a member of the Royal Family as its patron since it was created in 1946 with the late Queen Mother’s support, will be a humiliating blow.

The RPO said that after meeting Andrew’s representatives on Thursday ‘it was decided the Orchestra should part company with its patron with immediate effect’.

Meanwhile, the ENB, where Andrew has been patron since 2001, said that after the duke’s announcement that he is stepping back from public duties, it had accepted his resignation ‘with immediate effect’.

Others joining the flood of organisations looking to distance themselves from the prince included the University Technical Colleges and London Metropolitan University.

Buckingham Palace was still insisting last night that Andrew would remain involved in Pitch@Palace, working on it as part of a ‘private portfolio’ of events.

Palace officials said: ‘The duke will continue to work on Pitch and will look at how he takes this forward outside of his public duties and outside of Buckingham Palace. We recognise there will be a period of time while this transition takes place.’

But it is clear the initiative is on shaky ground after losing a string of sponsors including KPMG and that Andrew may yet be forced to try to save it by walking away.

There were also claims last night that as well as Pitch moving out of Buckingham Palace, the prince may even lose his small private office there – funded by the Queen – as he is no longer a working royal for the ‘foreseeable future’.

Andrew occupies a small suite of rooms in the palace, including two small offices, a meeting room and a bedroom he uses when staying overnight. Two sources said yesterday the teams working on Pitch and iDEA would be moving out, although one claimed it was a ‘natural progression’ because of the initiatives’ rapid growth.

Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk, who played a key role in persuading him to do the interview, has been shunted from her role to become the chief executive of Pitch. But sources close to the prince were keen to play down claims that his small team of personal staff – including his private secretary, a PA, a finance executive and an equerry – will also be kicked out of the palace.

‘Pitch and iDEA were always going to move out but his private office will remain here,’ they said. 

‘It’s only a very small team anyway but it will just be that little bit smaller because there will be less to do for the foreseeable future.’

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