It is one of the most notorious photographs of the 21st century, showing Prince Andrew with his arm around the waist of a teenage girl named Virginia Roberts.
It was taken late in the evening on March 10, 2001. Andrew, then aged 41, is wearing a white dress shirt with cufflinks and black trousers. The starstruck youngster, then aged 17, is wearing a pink top and tight trousers with a sheen, leaving her midriff bare.
Both are smiling for the camera, as is the third person depicted in the image – Ghislaine Maxwell. She has since been convicted of human trafficking charges connected to her former boyfriend, the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, and is serving a 20-year sentence in a US prison.
The photograph was taken at Maxwell’s home in London’s swanky Mayfair district, which has since changed hands several times. And the Mail on Sunday reveals the notoriety hasn’t dampened its value in the UK capital’s exorbitant property market.
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Columnist Harriet Kean reveals the current owners are “set to almost double their money”. She writes: “They bought the Mayfair pad for £1.75million in 2021 and have now put it back on the market for £3.25m. Unsurprisingly, Maxwell’s links to the property are not mentioned in marketing material for potential buyers.”
The man behind the lens but hidden by the flash’s reflection in the window is said to have been Epstein himself. He killed himself almost six years ago in a Manhattan prison cell. At the time, the blonde teen – who later married and became Virginia Giuffre – was working as his personal masseuse and it was her camera.
Courtesy of the US Department of Justice, the photo shows the Duke of York, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell
(Image: PA)
Later that night, she says she had sex with Andrew – an act she says was repeated twice more, once in New York and once on Epstein’s private island. The prince denies the claims and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in 2022.
The original print has been lost, most likely when Ms Giuffre emigrated from the USA to Australia. She gave it to the FBI in 2011 and a copy was made, which has since been shown in court and reproduced in thousands of news stories around the world.
In his infamous Newsnight interview in November 2019, the Duke of York was asked about the incriminating snap. “I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken. I don’t remember going upstairs in the house,” he said. Indeed, friends have suggested it may be a fake.
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But Wendy Murphy, a former sex crimes prosecutor, says the photo is damning for Andrew because there is “no innocent explanation, because there is no innocent reason for him to be hugging her, even in a social situation”.
She told the Guardian: “If this were not a member of the royal family with a person from a very different social class, the picture would tell you nothing, because it’s not a picture of sexual assault. In an ordinary case, the defence would just say it only proves they were at a party together.”
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