Prince Andrew’s accuser hails naming of 170 Epstein associates in unsealed documents

The Duke of York’s accuser last night welcomed a judge’s ruling that will see dozens of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates identified, asking: “Who’s on the naughty list?”

Virginia Giuffre hailed a New York court’s decision to unseal documents filed as part of her lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell.

Among those likely to be named in the papers is Prince Andrew, with whom she has claimed she was forced to have sex when she was 17.

Judge Loretta Preska has given those whose names will be released 14 days to appeal against her decision before they are made public.

Ms Giuffre, who settled her civil case with the Duke in early 2022, wrote on X, formerly Twitter:

The settlement with the Duke did not include any admission of wrongdoing.

She added: “Finally we are hearing members of the US government senators about the need for transparency and a call to arms for accountability!!

“There’s going to be a lot of nervous ppl over Christmas and New Years, 170 to be exact, who’s on the naughty list? This wouldn’t be possible without the Honourable Judge Preska.”

Judge Loretta Preska’s order is part of a defamation case involving Ms Giuffre and Maxwell, the British socialite and convicted sex-trafficker.

Anyone on the list will have until Jan 1 to appeal to have their name removed from it.

For several years, Judge Preska has reviewed documents sought by the Miami Herald from the civil case involving Maxwell and Ms Giuffre.

The case was settled in 2017 and many of the records related to the lawsuit have been publicly released in the past few years.

However, the names of scores of Epstein associates remained under a court-ordered seal.

On Monday, Judge Preska made determinations about some portions of the records that were initially withheld on potential privacy grounds and what can be made public about certain people mentioned.

In many instances, she noted that individuals had given media interviews or that their names had previously emerged publicly in various ways, including at Maxwell’s trial two years ago.

Judge Preska’s 51-page ruling, issued on Monday, called for Epstein’s connections to be “unsealed in full”.

Among the records are 40 documents of evidence from Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed Prince Andrew groped her breast while sitting on a couch inside Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Buckingham Palace has previously denied the allegations, saying they are “categorically untrue”.

Judge Preska concluded that some portions of the records should remain confidential, including those identifying people who were children when they were sexually abused by Epstein and had tried to maintain their privacy.

Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in August 2019 as he awaited trial on charges of sex trafficking and raping young girls.

He was accused of luring numerous underage girls to his homes under the guise of giving him massages, and then sexually abusing them.

Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.

The pair were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming collaborators and accomplices in sex crimes that stretched over almost three decades.

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