PRINCE Andrew's lawyers are reportedly searching for female victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in a bid to portray his accuser Virginia Giuffre as a sex trafficker.
Carolyn Andriano claims she was recruited by Giuffre, nee Roberts, at 14 and trained to give sexual massages, and says the now-38-year-old should receive the same sentence as Maxwell.
It is reported that the Duke of York intends to get sworn testimony from Andriano under oath as he looks to discredit Giuffre as a key member of Epstein and Maxwell's child sex trafficking ring.
Andrew's lawyers are also hunting for other women who Giuffre may have allegedly recruited when they were underage.
"We are interested in speaking with and interviewing anyone and everyone who has information relevant to these allegations," a source close to the Duke told The Sun Online.
But this strategy could backfire badly for the prince, as Andriano recently corroborated claims that Giuffre had sex with Andrew at Maxwell's London home when she was just 17.
Andriano gave evidence against Maxwell during her trial for underage sex charges in New York in December, under just her first name Carolyn.
A source familiar with the duke's strategy told The Times: "It's potentially a double-edged sword."
She told the jury she first met Maxwell and Epstein at their Palm Beach villa in 2001, after Giuffre, then her friend, asked if she would like to "go and make some money".
Last month, she waived her right to anonymity as she gave more details about her story in an interview with the Daily Mail.
Most read in News
COUGH UP 
Absent dads made to pay record £1billion child maintenance for their kids in 2021
Boy, 5, dies after being rescued from well where he was stuck for 100hrs
Des O'Connor's daughter reveals Met cop sexually harassed her after mugging
Evil Levi Bellfield admits to hammer murders of Lin and Megan Russell
"At 14 years old, I was big-breasted and I definitely could pass for 21 when I was made up," she said.
"I did my own make-up, but Virginia gave me clothes. She gave me these really tight skimpy shorts with a spaghetti-strap top with all my cleavage hanging out.
"She just said 'Whatever you do, don't say your age'. And I didn't even ask why. I went along with it."
Andriano claimed that she and Giuffre gave Epstein a nude massage and Giuffre had sex with him.
"I didn't know what to do or say, or where to go, so I sat on the couch and watched until it was finished," she said.
When Maxwell asked them how it went, Andriano claims "Virginia gave her a look to say it was a great session and that's when Maxwell asked me for my telephone number."
We are interested in speaking with and interviewing anyone and everyone who has information relevant to these allegations
Andriano was given $300 for the massage and says she returned to the villa about 100 times over the next four years where she was repeatedly abused by Epstein.
She accused her former friend Giuffre of being complicit in the abuse, adding: "I don't think Virginia deserves anything less than what Maxwell is getting because she trafficked me into a world of spiraling downward slopes."
The Sun Online has approached Virginia Giuffre for comment.
Her lawyer, David Boies, has previously stated: "Virginia has said for years that her role in facilitating other young women's involvement is something that she has always regretted. But that fact doesn't have anything to do with the truth of her allegations.
"Nobody is saying these young, vulnerable girls were perfect in every respect.
"They were susceptible to the kind of threats they were subjected to and it's not at all surprising they did things they later regret."
But, in what could be extremely damaging for Prince Andrew's defence, Andriano also alleges Giuffre told her in March 2001 that she had sex with the Duke in London, and showed her the infamous photo of the prince with his arm around the teenager's waist.
"I asked her if she'd been to the palace and she said 'I got to sleep with him', " Andriano said.
She added that Giuffre "didn't seem upset about it. She thought it was pretty cool."
It comes following reports that Andrew, 61, faces a two-day grilling from two of America's best lawyers on March 10 as part of a deposition ahead of his civil case.
But Giuffre, who lives in Australia, hasn't yet agreed to a date when she can be interviewed under oath by the prince's defence team.
Giuffre accuses the Duke of teenage rape and sexual assault and is seeking millions of pounds worth of damages from him in a New York-filed civil lawsuit.
She alleges that Andrew abused her on three occasions in 2001: at Maxwell's house in Belgravia, London; at Epstein's Manhattan mansion in New York; and on the paedo financier's private Caribbean island, Little Saint James.
Andrew has always strenuously denied the allegations against him, and his lawyers have tried to get Giuffre's case thrown out on a string of technicalities.
But if Andriano repeats her story under oath, it could seriously undermine the Duke's cases.
His lawyers, however, could claim that Giuffre's comments at the time were just a boast.
Now 35, Andriano says Epstein cast her aside when she became "too old" for his depraved tastes.
In 2003 at age 16, she ran away from her home in Florida to Georgia with her boyfriend, and became pregnant, giving birth to a son in March 2004.
But after struggling to support herself financially, she reached out to Epstein for work out of desperation.
"He asked me if I had any younger friends and I said 'no'," she explained.
"And that's when I realised I was too old. I was 18."
Source: Read Full Article
