31 December 2023 , 13:22
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One of Prince Andrew's sex accusers will see her "disturbing" new evidence unsealed in court this week, according to lawyers.
Legal papers are due to be unsealed on the orders of a judge on Tuesday, which relate to Johanna Sjoberg, who has alleged 63-year-old Andrew groped her breast in 2001 at the home of Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire paedophile.
More than 170 documents are due to be released in the US, with 67 concerning Ms Sjoberg. It relates to a 2015 defamation case brought against another of Prince Andrew's accusers, Virginia Roberts, and the now-jailed, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ms Sjoberg previously claimed the duke fondled her breast while posing with a Spitting Image puppet of himself. Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.
Ms Roberts' lawyer Sigrid McCawley has admitted her clients "disturbing testimony corroborating what lies at the core of this case — Maxwell was involved in facilitating the sexual abuse of young girls with Jeffrey Epstein”.
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New York judge Loretta Preska ordered the hundreds of files to be unsealed, with the 30-page summary of Ms Sjoberg’s evidence from the 2015 also set to show Maxwell's email account — which could reveal details of her conversations with Andrew.
Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. Epstein took his own life in 2019 while awaiting trial on related sex-abuse charges.
The documents come from a 2015 civil lawsuit centered on allegations that Epstein's friend Maxwell, facilitated the sexual abuse of sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre, an alleged trafficking victim. She accused Epstein and Maxwell of directing her to have sex with Andrew and several other high-profile men. Prince Andrew has denied the allegations and claimed he could not recall meeting the alleged victim. However, he later settled a lawsuit she filed against him in February 2022 on grounds of battery and infliction of emotional distress for a reported £10 million ($12.6 million) on no admission of liability.
Virginia Giuffre claims she was abused as a teenager (Zuma Press/PA Images)While many of Giuffre's allegations against Andrew have been reported, dozens of the sealed records are expected to contain additional details from "Jane Doe 162", a witness who testified she was with Andrew, Maxwell and Giuffre, then 17, at Epstein's New York home. Giuffre has alleged that during the 2001 gathering, she was directed to have sex with Andrew.
Giuffre made no allegations of wrongdoing against Bill Clinton, but she claimed she met the former president on Epstein's private Caribbean island, which emerged as a contentious issue in the lawsuit, It was later settled in 2017. Maxwell stated Clinton had never been to the island and claimed Giuffre's claim was a fabrication.