Prince Andrew had sexual relations with an underage girl

Virginia Roberts, who says she was 17 when she first met the Duke of York in London, claims she was forced to have sexual contact with him by Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: Geoff Pugh/Zumacl Press/Corbis

A lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender at the centre of allegations Prince Andrew had sexual relations with an underage girl, dismissed her claims as “stale” and “rehashed”.

In the first comments from Epstein’s representatives since the Guardian revealed on Friday that the prince had been named in a Florida court motion, an attorney for the disgraced financier said: “These are stale, rehashed allegations that lawyers are now attempting to repackage and spice up by adding the names of prominent people.”

Virginia Roberts, who says she was 17 when she first met the Duke of York in London, claims she was forced to have sexual contact with him by Epstein, in London, New York and on his private island in the Caribbean during an “orgy”.

Prince Andrew held talks with advisers at his mansion near Windsor Castle on Monday , following Roberts’ claims in US court papers. He is under mounting pressure to release a full account of his encounters with Epstein, when he is alleged to have had sexual relations with Roberts, whom Epstein had hired as a masseuse.

Courtiers declined to comment in detail on the three occasions where Prince Andrew is alleged to have had sexual relations with Roberts, but issued a fresh denial of the allegations. “The Duke’s categorical denial of claims in both the court filing and subsequent Sunday newspaper reports has been made abundantly clear,” a royal aide said.

Buckingham Palace issued vehement denials over the weekend that the duke had “any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts” and that “any suggestion of impropriety with under-age minors is categorically untrue”. Aides declined to comment on how Prince Andrew’s position was tested.

A source familiar with royal operations said aides were unlikely to have felt the need to carry out further due diligence on Prince Andrew’s denial before issuing it. MI6 and British diplomats routinely provide information to the Royal Household about issues arising abroad and it is understood they are likely to have volunteered any information they had about the veracity of Roberts’ claims before the issuing by the palace of a robust denial.

On Monday Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, spoke out publicly in his support, stating: “He is a great man, the best man in the world. The York family are a tight unit – we always have been a tight unit.”

Earlier it emerged that three close associates of Epstein have been questioned in the US about whether Prince Andrew was involved in sexual activity with underaged girls.

In separate depositions made to courts, Sarah Kellen, Nada Marcinkova and Adriana Ross all declined to answer.

According to court documents, Kellen was asked in March 2010: “Would you agree with me that Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein used to share underaged girls for sexual relations?”

She replied: “On the instruction of my lawyer, I must invoke my fifth amendment privilege.”

Ross was asked by attorney Brad Edwards that same month: “Has Prince Andrew been involved with underage minor females to your knowledge?”

She said: “I refuse to answer.”

Marcinkova – who was described as another “sex slave” to Epstein by several of his alleged victims – was asked by Edwards in April 2010: “Have you ever been made to perform sexually on Prince Andrew?”

She replied: “Fifth.”

The Buckingham Palace strategy appears to be to await further developments in the US legal action before considering issuing a more detailed response. The judge in the case which Roberts is seeking to join has yet to decide on her application and as yet, Roberts’ deposition does not contain any detail about the dates of Prince Andrew’s alleged sexual contact with her.

The Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who was accused alongside Prince Andrew of having sexual relations with Roberts while she was a minor

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