REUTERS/Tony GentileBritain's Prince Andrew arrives for a pre-wedding dinner ahead of the wedding of Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London.Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted paedophile and former friend of Prince Andrew, has been accused by US investigators of "aggressive witness tampering" to avoid questions over whether under-age girls were "provided for sex" to the Duke.
Two women involved in a 2008 case against Epstein in which he plead guilty to to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in return for a plea bargain with prosecutors are seeking to join two others in a case against the US government. The women allege a violation of their rights, claiming that they were not informed of the plea deal, which saw Epstein sentenced to 18 months in prison and serve only 13 months.
One of the women, named by the Mail on Sunday as Virginia Roberts, a mother of three currently living in Australia, alleges she was repeatedly forced to have sex with Prince Andrew while below the legal age of consent in Florida, where the papers were filed.
The Palace has strongly denied the allegations calling them "categorically untrue".
However, the lawyers representing the women allege that witness testimony relating to the Prince's involvement may have been tampered with. According to court documents filed in Florida, three close associates of Epstein, Sarah Kellen, Nada Marcinkova and Adriana Ross, all refused to answer questions relating to Andrew.
In March 2010 Kellen was asked:"Would you agree with me that Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein used to share under-aged girls for sexual relations?"
She said: "On the instruction of my lawyer, I must invoke my fifth amendment privilege."
Ross was also questioned on the subject. She was asked: "Has Prince Andrew been involved with underage minor females to your knowledge?"
She refused to answer.
REUTERS/Andrew InnerarityAttorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz during an interview at his home in Miami Beach January 5, 2015.Described elsewhere in the documents as Epstein's "live-in sex slave" Marcinkova plead the fifth when asked whether she had "been made to perform sexually on Prince Andrew".
The financier himself also refused to answer questions relating to the Duke.
The document lists the three women among ten employees and associates of Epstein who, the lawyers claim, were represented by legal council paid for by Epstein. The documents allege that the "witness tampering [was]...so severe" that it was recorded as part of the plea agreement.
The lawyers are now seeking to force Epstein to release a full copy of those documents relating to his plea deal.
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who is accused along with the Prince of having had sexual relations with Roberts, told the Guardian that he had spoken with Epstein who is reported to be "furious that they're picking on [Dershowitz] and the Prince". He vehemently denies the accusations against him and said he plans to sue Roberts and her lawyers for defamation.