Why is Prince Andrew not cooperating in Epstein probe?
Author of 'A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein,' Daniel Halper, weighs in on ‘America’s Newsroom.’
An infamous photo of Prince Andrew embracing his sex abuse accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre was taken at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged madam’s brother said in an interview this week.
Ian Maxwell, 64, admitted to the BBC he recognized the setting for the 2001 photo after an initial reluctance to talk about it in his first broadcast interview in 30 years, the New York Post reported. Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, is in the photo herself.
"I don’t know anything about the photograph other than that I’ve seen it’s been published," he told the U.K. broadcaster in the interview aired Wednesday. "I know it’s of interest to your listeners, but nonetheless I am not here to talk about that."
Prince Andrew, who is accused of having sex with Guiffre when she was allegedly being sexually trafficked by Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein while she was underage, has suggested the photo is fake and has even denied knowing her.
Photo from 2001 that was included in court files shows Prince Andrew with his arm around the waist of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre who says Jeffrey Epstein paid her to have sex with the prince. (U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Giuffre, 17 at the time, has repeatedly said the photo was taken on the first night Maxwell and Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison after additional sex trafficking charges, forced her to have sex with the prince.
Prince Andrew has also said he doesn’t remember ever going upstairs in Maxwell’s home where the photo was apparently taken.
"I do recognize that setting," Ian Maxwell confirmed after the interviewer asked, "Was it taken in Ghislaine’s house in London?"
When asked if he thought the prince might be asked to speak as a character witness for the defense, Ian Maxwell said he didn’t know, adding, "We’re in the process of gathering together the witnesses and so forth … so I can’t comment on the makeup of who’s going to be saying what to who."
He said he assumed his sister still considered Andrew a friend but said that he believed her friendship with Epstein ended around 20 years ago. He said he thinks he only saw them together once, the Post reported.
"I wish she’d never met the man, obviously," he told the BBC, claiming his sister has suffered "brutal, degrading" treatment in solitary confinement at a New York detention center awaiting her trial for sex trafficking.
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Manhattan Assistant US Attorney Alex Rossmiller said last year she was being held in solitary for her own "safety" and "security and the orderly functioning of the facility," according to Knewz.