Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile: Five things we learnt from new documentary
As the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell awaits sentencing on charges of recruiting and trafficking girls for the deceased Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, an ITV documentary has chronicled the story of the disgraced pair via exclusive interviews with friends of the financier, survivors and staff, from which surfaced unsavoury new revelations of their relationship with Prince Andrew.
Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile arrived on UK screens just days after Maxwell was found guilty of five out of six charges against her. She was cleared of one charge: enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. Epstein’s accomplice could face a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Meanwhile, the Duke of York finds himself facing a possible civil trial after Virginia Giuffre - who also made an appearance during the latter half of the documentary - accused him of sexual assault in the early 2000s.
The Queen stripped Prince Andrew of his military titles and royal patronages in the wake of a US judge allowing Giuffre’s case involving her son to move to trial.
Here are five things we learned from Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile:
1. Prince Andrew would ‘shout and scream’ if his teddy bear collection was rearranged, it is claimed
Speaking about the Duke’s private apartment, former royal protection officer Paul Page said: “It had about 50 or 60 stuffed toys positioned on the bed.
“And, basically, there was a card the inspector showed us in a drawer, and it was a picture of these bears all in situ on the bed.
“And the reason for the laminated picture was that, if those bears weren’t put back in the right order by the maids, he would shout and scream and become verbally abusive.”
2. Ghislaine Maxwell may have had an ‘intimate relationship’ with the Duke of York
Paul Page has also claimed Prince Andrew may have been involved in an “intimate relationship” with the former socialite.
Speaking to an ITV journalist, Mr Page said he believes Maxwell entered and reentered the palace four times in one day, “in and out, in and out.”
“From the way she was allowed to enter and exit the palace, at will, we realised… suspected, that she may have had an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew.”
“A colleague of mine remembered her coming in four times in one day from the morning till the evening – she kept coming in and out, in and out…” he claimed.
3. The royal’s number appeared to be seen in Maxwell and Epstein’s ‘little black book’
During one clip, the same journalist discovers an entry in the book under ‘Duke of York’, with Buckingham Palace, London, assigned as the address.
A number is also supplied, which the journalist proceeds to call.
It goes to voicemail and a message - the voice of which she said “sounds like Andrew” - said: “I’m afraid I have not been quick enough to get to the phone before it went off to take your message. If you do have a message, please leave it and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”
4. One of Maxwell’s jurors said the ‘brutal’ trial deliberations left them in tears while she was ‘like a stone’
The juror, known by his first names Scotty David, revealed the 12 jury members felt “comfortable” with Maxwell’s guilty verdict, but said the 40 hours of deliberations had been an emotionally draining experience.
In an interview, Scotty David said: “There were tears, because this is somebody’s life on the line. The prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ghislaine Maxwell was guilty of these crimes.
“And we all felt comfortable, but the emotional toll it took on all of us after spending a week combing through all the evidence, all the testimony again, was, it was brutal.”
5. Ghislaine Maxwell was ‘essentially a pimp’, lawyer to Epstein’s survivors claimed
The lawyer who represented eight victims of the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein in the trial against Maxwell has said she “took advantage” of the young girls who trusted her for “being a woman.”
Speaking in the ITV documentary, Lisa Bloom said that the girls were not recruited by Epstein, but Ghislaine Maxwell.
She described Maxwell and Epstein’s operation as a “pyramid scheme, with Jeffery Epstein at the top, then Ghislaine, and then all the young girls.”
Bloom added that Maxwell was “essentially a pimp” and was also occasionally “directly involved in the sexual assault herself.”
The attorney, who was also involved in the sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein, said that the girls found Maxwell more “trusting” as she was a women. “Ghislaine took advantage of that,” she added.
“She normalised Jeffery Epstein’s behaviour and set the tone to enable him to be the predator he was.
“Women trusted her, people trusted her.”
