Court documents claim Prince Andrew’s accuser ‘paid half a million’ by Epstein

Allegations contained in the documents claim that Giuffre was 16, not 15, when she first met Ms Maxwell in Florida. She is also accused of changing a story about meeting Donald Trump and that she confused one of the men accused of being involved in sex trafficking, allegedly a Harvard professor, with another professor.

The Harvard professor vehemently denies the allegations.

The claims emerged in a transcript of a conversation between Sharon Churcher, the journalist who first revealed Giuffre to be an Epstein victim in a 2011 interview in the Mail on Sunday, and Tony Lyons, a New York publisher.

Lyons’s Skyhorse group has published books by Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s former lawyer who Giuffre claimed she was trafficked to six times as a minor.

Churcher met Lyons at Skyhorse’s headquarters in Manhattan on October 2 2019, to discuss a book she was working on regarding the MeToo movement.

During the course of their 80-minute conversation, which was recorded by Lyons, Churcher made a series of claims about Giuffre, whom she first revealed as victim “Jane Doe 3” in a story published on February 27, 2011.

The article was accompanied by a never-before-seen photo of Andrew with his arm around a then 17-year-old Virginia, taken by Epstein at Maxwell’s London flat in March 2001.

Laywer Chuck Cooper, representing Giuffre, said: “We look forward to taking Ms Churcher’s deposition under oath.”

In the transcript, Churcher admits that Giuffre “got paid” for the interview, in which she says she was recruited by Maxwell to become Epstein’s masseuse when she was working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club in Florida.

Epstein paid her off. She had settled with Epstein. She’d taken half a million, I think.

Sharon Churcher, journalist

In the original interview, Giuffre described herself as “a paedophile’s dream”, having been abused as a child, and she detailed how she spent the next four years being pressured to have underage sex with Epstein and was “pimped out” to powerful men.

Although she did not at that stage accuse the Duke of York of any wrongdoing, she claims to have met him three times; when the photo was taken and they went out to Tramp nightclub; again at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion in Easter 2001 “when Ghislaine placed me on his knee”; and a third time on Epstein’s Caribbean island.

It was not until three years later, in a Florida court filing, that she described being sex-trafficked to the royal at least three times when she was 17 in 2001. Buckingham Palace stated that “any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue”, later repeating the denials.

The transcript alleges that Churcher claims Giuffre “lied about her age”, telling Lyons that Epstein had “two sides to his operation” – abusing schoolgirls and “pimping out beautiful young women to very powerful men”.

Referring to Giuffre, she said: “She took a year off (her age). Apparently she was 16, not 15, when she was recruited [by Epstein]. But she’d be on the game for about a year then. Epstein… basically had prostitutes.”

Churcher goes on to claim that Giuffre is “suing everybody,” including Professor Dershowitz, adding: “The idea is that he will then pay her off. This really is blackmail.”

When Lyons replies that Dershowitz “isn’t going to do that” because he doesn’t want his “legacy tarnished”, Churcher responds: “She’ll just move on to other people if she gets away with that one too. She’s a big spender. She’s spent so much money. Because you see, Epstein paid her off. She had settled with Epstein. She’d taken half a million, I think.”

Churcher then refers to an email Giuffre sent her on May 5, 2011, also submitted in evidence, asking her to clarify the names of the men she claimed “JE had sent me to” during the interview.

The transcript of the email suggests Churcher responded six days later, on May 11, 2011, saying: “Don’t forget Alan Dershowitz. JE’s buddy and lawyer … we all suspect Alan is a pedo …”

Churcher tells Lyons she would never use the word “pedo”, adding: “I wonder about some of these emails, too, that she’s produced. Because you can change emails.”

Describing Dershowitz as “a victim”, Churcher says Giuffre may have “confused him with this other Harvard professor”, also Epstein’s friend.

Churcher also alleges that Giuffre “changed her story about Trump, too”. In a second story, she quotes Giuffre as saying: “Donald Trump was also a good friend of Jeffrey’s. He didn’t partake in sex with any of us but he flirted with me. He’d laugh and tell Jeffrey, ‘You’ve got the life’.”

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Churcher tells Lyons: “She’s now saying she never said it.”

Dershowitz’s lawyer declined to comment. Representatives for Ms Churcher did not respond to a request for comment.

The Telegraph, London