VICTIMS OF JEFFREY Epstein have called on Prince Andrew to make a statement to the FBI following his interview with the BBC.
Lawyers for some of the 16 women who say they were abused by Epstein said they want the British royal to talk to law enforcement.
A probe into Epstein is continuing despite his suicide in jail this summer, where he was being held while facing sex trafficking charges.
Andrew was asked in the interview if he would give a statement under oath to investigators, and said: “… if push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so, then I would be duty bound to do so”.
Lisa Bloom, who is representing a number of the women, told Sky News: “My clients are very disturbed by all of those who were around Jeffrey Epstein who don’t seem to get it, even now.
“Even now that dozens and dozens of women have come forward and told these horrific stories. Here was the chance for Prince Andrew to say ‘my heart goes out to the women, I am so embarrassed and upset that I was ever associated with this monster…’”
She went on to say: “Instead what we hear is he thinks it was honourable to go to his home after his sex crimes conviction and spend four days there because Jeffrey Epstein could introduce him to people, that makes no sense at all.
“He doesn’t seem to have any compassion for the victims, he doesn’t seem to have much remorse for his long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.”
The interview has been widely criticised with commentators questioning his responses and condemning his unsympathetic tone and lack of remorse for the friendship with the sex offender.
Emily Maitlis, whose interview with Andrew was screened on Saturday, writing in the Times newspaper describes the final stages of securing the royal on the current affairs programme.
She writes: “We have finished laying out our pitch. An awkward moment of silence falls. And the duke tells us he must ‘seek approval from higher up’.
“It dawns on us then that he means the Queen herself. At 8am the next day we have a message telling us to call his office. The Queen, it seems, is on board.”
During the interview the duke denied he slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage, saying one encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.
The same alleged sexual liaison, which the American said began with the royal sweating heavily as they danced at London nightclub Tramp, was factually wrong, the duke said, as he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.
- With reporting by Garreth MacNamee
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