Detective says Epstein could reach Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace: 'He has 13 phone numbers to contact the Duke'
Jeffrey Epstein, who died in August while awaiting trial for allegedly sex trafficking underage females, kept an address book that included 13 different phone numbers for Prince Andrew, according to a private investigator who discovered it at his Palm Beach mansion.
Detective Mike Fisten, who has spent more than a decade working on the Epstein case, told the Sunday Times of London that Epstein used the book to document contact information for his high-profile friends around the world: "For instance, if looking at the section in London, you could pick out the Duke of York, which is Prince Andrew. And ... it shows Buckingham Palace," Fisten said.
Epstein's book listed "13 phone numbers to contact the Duke," Fisten said.
Although Prince Andrew has denied engaging in illegal activities, there is a photo of him with his arm around a then underage woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has since detailed their alleged sexual encounters. Among other allegations, Giuffre said in 2015 that she was once coerced into group sex with the Duke of York, Epstein, and a handful of girls who "appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn't really speak English."
She said the event took place on Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her comments were struck from Florida court records the same year they were made.
Prince Andrew has asserted that he didn't know about Epstein's alleged criminal activities, even after he pled guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring an underage girl for prostitution. "At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction," he claimed in a statement.
The Duke has said that his last known visit to the United States to visit Epstein was not made in friendship, but in order to cut ties. During his 2011 trip to New York, Epstein hosted a party with a celebrity-studded guest list that included Woody Allen, Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos and more famous faces, the New York Post reported at the time.
Additionally, neighbors told media at the time that multiple women were seen coming and going from Epstein's home during the Duke's visit, and he was seen kissing one at the door.
The Duke of York is the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Buckingham Palace previously released a statement denying that he "had any form of sexual contact with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation."
