It comes after one of Epstein’s victims launched a lawsuit against the duke last week.
A report has said that Prince Andrew is a person of interest for prosecutors in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
US officials would like to interview the royal about his friendship with sex offender Epstein as they investigate potential co-conspirators in the case, Reuters reports.
Andrew is viewed as at least a potential witness in the investigation, a source told the news organisation.
Just last week, Virginia Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in a US court for alleged sexual abuse.
Giuffre, who was one of Epstein’s many victims, claims that the Duke of York abused her on three occasions when she was under the age of 18.
However, it seems that the royal has no intention of speaking to anyone in regards to either Giuffre’s lawsuit or the Epstein case.
The source told Reuters: “He doesn’t seem to want to talk to us.”
Epstein died by suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019, while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Ghislaine Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that she procured teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004. Her trial is expected to take place in November.
Andrew has always strenuously denied the claims, saying that he never had a relationship with Giuffre.
Related links:
Prince Andrew to be served court papers in person over sexual assault claim
Ghislaine Maxwell prepared to give evidence in Prince Andrew sexual assault lawsuit
Prince Andrew accuser says she ‘feared death’ if she disobeyed orders
In an interview with Newsnight in 2019, he suggested that an image of him with Giuffre, then Roberts, may be a fake or have been doctored.
He said: “I don’t believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested.
“I think it’s, from the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not, because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph. So it’s very difficult to be able to prove it, but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.”
During the same interview he delivered the now-infamous Pizza Express alibi for where he was when the photo with Giuffre was allegedly taken.
“I was at home. I was with the children, and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of 4 or 5 in the afternoon,” he said.
“And then, because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other one is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy, so therefore I was at home.”
