‘Prince Andrew must testify’: Epstein accusers' lawyer

Five women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of abusing them claimed Prince Andrew witnessed people being given massages at the sex offender's homes.

Speaking with BBC, the lawyer for the women, David Boies, said he plans to serve subpoenas to force the Duke of York to testify as a witness in all the 5 cases.

"One of the things that we have tried is to interview Prince Andrew and to try to get what his explanation is. He was a frequent visitor. They ought to submit to an interview. They ought to talk about it, he added.

David explained that the prince could have important information about sex trafficking.

However, the prince denied witnessing or suspecting any behaviour during visits to Epstein's homes.

The subpoenas - court summonses to give testimony - have been prepared for all 5 cases and would have to be signed off by a judge once the prince is on US soil.

He would then be able to challenge the subpoena in court if he does not want to produce evidence.

BBC Panorama also uncovered new information about the infamous photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre - then called Virginia Roberts.

She said that she, the prince, Epstein and his then girlfriend, the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, went to Tramp night club in London.

Virginia said that in the car on the way back "Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey and that just made me sick".

When they got back to the house, she said she asked Epstein to take a picture of her to show her family. She then carried out the instructions to entertain the prince.

"Well there was a bath and it started there and then it led into the bedroom and 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."

'It's a real photo'

Prince Andrew emphatically denies any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Giuffre and says any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.

He said he has no recollection of ever meeting her.

Virginia Giuffre describes how she asked Jeffrey Epstein to take this picture of her with Andrew

The photo of them together was first published in 2011 after the Mail on Sunday tracked down Giuffre and paid her $160,000 for her story.

This year palace sources started suggesting the photo was a fake - but Prince Andrew stopped just short of that in his interview with BBC Newsnight.

He said: "You can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it's a photograph of a photograph of a photograph."

"It's very difficult to be able to prove it but I don't remember that photograph being taken. That's me but whether that's my hand… I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken."

The prince also said he thought he had never been upstairs in his friend Ghislaine Maxwell's house, where the photo appears to have been taken.

But Giuffre told Panorama the photo is genuine and she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.

"I think the world is getting sick of these ridiculous excuses. It's a real photo," she said. "I've given it to the FBI for their investigation and it's an authentic photo. There's a date on the back of it from when it was printed."

She said the date on the back of the photo is 13 March 2001 - two days after she left London on her trip with Epstein and Maxwell.

Panorama also spoke to the freelance photographer Michael Thomas who first copied the picture in 2011.

He is convinced the picture is genuine because he found it in the middle of a bundle of photos that Giuffre handed him from her travels with Epstein and Maxwell.

He said: "It was nothing sophisticated. These were 5x7 photos that looked like they had come from Boots the chemist. They were typical teenage snaps."

The programme also found evidence that supports Giuffre's claim that she gave the original to the FBI.

A redacted court document shows she gave 20 photos to the FBI in 2011 and they were scanned front and back.

But there are only 19 photos shown in the public version.

BBC Panorama has been told the Prince Andrew photo was removed from the public document to protect his privacy.