Ghislaine Maxwell's family released a bizarre staged photo in an apparent attempt to discredit accusations of sexual abuse against Prince Andrew

virginia giuffre prince andrew ghislaine maxwell
Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, along with Ghislaine Maxwell. This photo was included in an affidavit where Giuffre claimed Prince Andrew directed her to have sex with him.Florida Southern District Court
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  • The Telegraph published a staged picture meant to "clear" Prince Andrew of sexual abuse accusations.

  • Ghislaine Maxwell's brother Ian said the image proves Virginia Giuffre's claims are false.

  • The photo features two people sitting in a bathtub, wearing masks of Andrew and Giuffre's faces.

In an apparent attempt to discredit Virginia Giuffre's allegations of sexual abuse against Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell's family has released a staged photo of two people in the sex trafficking socialite's former London home.

The Telegraph, a conservative British broadsheet, published the bizarre image on Friday, with a headline that it "clears Prince Andrew" of the accusations. The image features two unknown associates of Maxwell's in her bathtub, wearing paper masks of Andrew and Giuffre's faces, according to The Telegraph.

Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine's brother, told The Telegraph that the staged photo, which was created as a part of Ghislaine's sex trafficking trial defense, proves Giuffre's claims are false because it shows "that the bath is too small for any sort of sex frolicking" with two people in the tub at once.

The photo's release comes as Prince Andrew attempts to overturn the $16 million settlement he agreed to late last year in order to avoid going to court over Giuffre's allegations. Giuffre alleged that, after she was trafficked by Epstein, the Duke of York was one of the people who abused her in 2001, when she was 17 years old.

In her account of the abuse, Giuffre says the royal began touching her in the bathtub of Maxwell's former home, licking her feet and playing with her toes, before directing her to have sex with him.

"There was a bath and it started there and then led into the bedroom," Giuffre told BBC Panorama in 2019. "It didn't last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting. He wasn't mean or anything but he got up and he said 'Thanks' and walked out."

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in June and sentenced to 20 years in prison for preying upon teen girls and allowing them to be abused by prolific sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. Prince Andrew, who maintained a 20-year public friendship with Epstein, was listed under 12 different phone numbers in the sex offender's notorious black book, which listed more than 1,500 of his political and celebrity contacts.

Despite his friendship with Epstein and the settlement, Andrew maintains his innocence.

"It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years," Insider reported Andrew said in a statement last year. "Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims."

Lawyers for Prince Andrew, Maxwell, and Giuffre did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Telegraph reported Prince Andrew is in talks with lawyers to attempt to overturn the settlement after Giuffre dropped her lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz late last year, saying she "may have made a mistake" when she identified him as one of the people she was trafficked to.

Despite Giuffre's statements about Dershowitz, legal experts told Insider that Prince Andrew's attempts to overturn the settlement are a "foolhardy effort."

Read the original article on Insider