Lawyers for a woman who says an American billionaire forced her into sexual relations with Britain’s Prince Andrew when she was 17 want the royal to respond under oath to the allegations.
In a letter filed in a Florida court on Wednesday which piles more pressure on Prince Andrew, the lawyers ask him for an interview “regarding interactions that you had with Jane Doe #3 beginning in approximately early 2001.”
The request states the interview should only last about two hours and includes a photograph of Prince Andrew, also known as the Duke of York, with his arm around the woman.
The law office of Bradley Edwards, who represents the woman, told AFP it had no additional comment.
The woman alleges she was “forced to have sexual relations” with Prince Andrew, who is now 54, meeting him in London, New York and the Caribbean at the behest of billionaire Wall Street financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Epstein, a known friend of Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, was convicted in 2008 of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and served a prison term.
Buckingham Palace has repeatedly and strongly denied the allegations, calling them “false and without foundation.”
“Jane Doe #3” made the claim in a motion to be included in an ongoing civil case that accuses federal prosecutors of cutting a plea-bargain deal with Epstein without consulting his victims, in violation of the US Crime Victims Rights’ Act.
The prince was due to speak on Thursday at a gathering of the world’s business and political elite in the Swiss ski resort Davos, but it is not clear if he will address the allegations.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “We would not comment on speculation about what the Duke might say.”
Wednesday’s motion and attached exhibits, however, contained significantly more detail the woman’s three alleged encounters with Andrew, the first of which she claims occurred in London in 2001.
On the photograph showing the Prince with his arms around the woman’s waist she says it was taken in the London townhouse where the alleged sexual encounter took place.
“Epstein took a picture of me and Andy with my own camera,” she said of the image in her affidavit.
“Andy has his left arm around my waist and is smiling. The picture was developed on 13 March 2001, and was taken sometime shortly before I had it developed. I was 17 years old at the time.”
In her affidavit Roberts also alleges: “When I got back from my trip, Epstein paid me more than he had paid me to be with anyone else — approximately $15,000. That money was for what I had done, and to keep my mouth shut.”
