The disgraced Prince Andrew has backtracked from his commitment of offering help to the investigators into the American sex-offender and paedophile Jeffery Epstein case.
Last year, after being sacked from the royal duties by the Queen following his controversial interview on BBC, Andrew had issued a public statement: "I deeply sympathize with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure. Of course, I am willing to help with any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required."
Andrew isn't responding to the investigators' request
Laying the tall claims made by the sacked Prince, to ground, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said that Andrew has provided zero cooperation in the case. Addressing media outside the Manhattan-based townhouse of sex-offender Epstein, Berman said: "To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation. Prosecutors and the FBI, who are investigating both Epstein and possible co-conspirators, including the prince, have sought interviews with him, Berman said, but he has not complied," he added.
While maintaining that they generally refrain from talking about an individual's involvement in the investigations, Berman said: "However, in Prince Andrew's case, he publicly offered, indeed in a press release, offered to cooperate with law enforcement investigating the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators."
Prince's legal team dealing with issue: Buckingham Palace
In response, Buckingham Palace has stated that Prince's legal team was dealing with the issue and it would not comment further.
During the BBC Interview, Andrew, who was a long-time friend of Epstein, who later committed suicide in his jail cell, had come in defence of his friend stating that Epstein provided him with opportunities to learn. Andrew has categorically denied having knowledge about Epstein's sexual escapades. During the interview, Andrew also claimed that he has never met Virginia Roberts, an American woman and Epstein's former sex-slave, who claimed that Andrew had sex with her when she was just 17 years old.
Prince refusal proves he had more role in Epstein's sex scandal
Reacting sharply to Andrew's failure to cooperate in the investigations into the sex scandal that has affected several women and minors, Epstein's former sex slave Virginia Roberts warned the disgraced Prince that he was not above the law.
Roberts had claimed that Andrew had sex with her on three occasions including once when she was a minor at 17. In an interview with BBC One, Virginia had claimed that she was forced to have sex with Andrew at the behest of Epstein, a close friend of the Prince. Virginia had called sex with the prince as disgusting and quick.
A lawyer for Virginia Roberts said: "Prince Andrew's continued refusal to cooperate with the authorities after freely acknowledging that he would be prepared to answer enquiries raises even more questions about the role he played in the international sex trafficking ring Jeffrey Epstein and others operated. Prince Andrew should take most seriously the deeply held belief in this country that no one is above the law."
