Prince Andrew ‘used Spitting Image puppet of himself’ to assault Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Prince Andrew used a puppet of himself from ITV satire show Spitting Image to grope two of Jeffrey Epstein’s “sex slaves”, according to an unpublished manuscript of a book written by one of the alleged victims.

Newly released court documents seen by the Daily Mirror reveal that Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims the Duke of York assaulted her with the latex likeness when she was trafficked to have sex with the Royal at the age of 17.

Giuffre alleges that the Prince had been given the puppet in April 2001 by convicted paedophile Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused by US prosecutors of procuring girls for the late financier to sexually abuse.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Andrew is then said to have used the puppet to grope Giuffre and Epstein’s former PA and victim Johanna Sjoberg in the “opulent first-floor study” of the billionaire’s New York home, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the court documents, Giuffre “wrote in her unpublished book that she was summoned to the property by Maxwell”, the newspaper adds.

“Prince Andrew had that notorious cheesy grin slapped over his face, as he looked me up and down like a shiny new car on display and he was about to take it for a test drive,” she wrote, before describing how the Duke “cupped” her breast using the puppet.

Sjoberg has also previously described the alleged encounter with the Duke and his Spitting Image likeness.

In a 2016 deposition, during Giuffre’s civil defamation case against Maxwell, Sjoberg said under oath: “I sat on Andrew’s lap... they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.”

Giuffre claims that after being groped, she was told to take the Duke “to the dungeon” for an erotic massage, adding that Andrew “disrobed” and showed signs of “arousal”.

The Duke has repeatedly denied having sex with Giuffre.

The puppet allegation coincides with the return of Spitting Image, which will relaunch later this year on BritBox, the streaming service launched by the BBC and ITV. The show will include a “glum-looking” Andrew puppet, “dressed in a tartan coat complete with paisley neckerchief”, Sky News reports.