{"id":12647,"date":"2020-08-07T12:25:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T12:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/?p=12647"},"modified":"2020-08-07T12:25:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T12:25:45","slug":"witness-claims-to-have-seen-prince-andrew-at-club-with-virginia-giuffre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/2020\/08\/07\/witness-claims-to-have-seen-prince-andrew-at-club-with-virginia-giuffre\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness claims to have seen Prince Andrew at club with Virginia Giuffre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>Woman has come forward claiming she recalls seeing duke at Mayfair nightclub with Giuffr<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The FBI has been passed information from a witness claiming to have seen the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/prince-andrew\">Duke of York<\/a>&nbsp;at a nightclub with a woman who alleges the pair had sex when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US lawyer Lisa Bloom, who is representing the victims of the royal\u2019s former friend and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, said Shukri Walker recalled seeing Prince Andrew at Tramp nightclub in Mayfair and had come forward to support Virginia Giuffre\u2019s version of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Giuffre, now 36, who was abused by Epstein, has claimed she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, and was aged 17 on the first occasion. Andrew has categorically denied her claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a message to Andrew, Bloom said: \u201cIt\u2019s not too late to turn away from your former friends&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/jeffrey-epstein\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/ghislaine-maxwell\">Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>, and to help the victims get justice. Come clean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrew has denied Giuffre\u2019s claim he was at the Mayfair club on the night of 10 March 2001, saying he was at home after visiting the Pizza Express restaurant in Woking with daughter Beatrice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e8660aa664bfa37b715ec8af8b3bf5a2ab81b0a8\/0_32_4029_2418\/master\/4029.jpg?width=300&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=3c6106cd7b393a8e74ff0655b109cf04\" alt=\"Virginia Giuffre speaking to media in New York last year.\"\/><figcaption>Virginia Giuffre speaking to media in New York last year.&nbsp;Photograph: Bebeto Matthews\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Bloom said Walker recalled seeing Andrew at the club with Giuffre, then called Virginia Roberts, and Epstein\u2019s girlfriend, Maxwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy client says she was there and she remembers the night clearly because she never saw a royal before or since,\u201d Bloom confirmed to the Guardian via email. \u201cShe says Prince Andrew was happy, smiling and dancing, and Virginia did not look happy. My client was a trafficking victim herself and wants everyone to know that sex trafficking is real, ongoing and devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bloom, who represents six alleged victims of Epstein, added: \u201cI gave the FBI all the details of my client\u2019s story for further investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prosecutors working on the Epstein trafficking case have accused Andrew of refusing to cooperate with requests to interview him about his contacts with the financier, who killed himself in a New York prison last year while awaiting trial on child sexual trafficking charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrew has said in recent weeks that he is cooperating with the FBI investigation into Epstein. The duke, who no longer performs royal duties, has been under increased pressure since Maxwell\u2019s arrest last month. She is in jail in the US on charges of trafficking minors for her former partner and will go on trial in July 2021. She has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lawyers representing the women are demanding that anyone with information about Epstein or Maxwell, including Prince Andrew, assist authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was no comment from Andrew\u2019s legal representatives in relation to this alleged witness sighting. A friend of the duke questioned how accurate recollections of such events could be, 20 years after they happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walker told the Sun newspaper she recalled Andrew being at Tramp because she accidentally stepped on his foot while dancing. She told the paper she had decided to speak out after watching Andrew\u2019s denials in the now infamous BBC Newsnight interview about his friendship with Epstein and Giuffre\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/sE9iJPEuYHE\/sddefault.jpg#404_is_fine\" alt=\"Loading video\"\/><figcaption>Prince Andrew denies having sex with teenager, saying he took daughter for pizza in Woking \u2013 video<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I watched the BBC interview and saw Prince Andrew deny knowing Virginia, saying he has no recollection of that night, I had to come forward,\u201d Walker was quoted as saying. \u201cBecause I was there and I do have a recollection of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The FBI has reportedly decided it does not need Walker\u2019s testimony despite being given her evidence by Bloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An FBI spokeswoman has said it would not comment on the developments surrounding Walker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woman has come forward claiming she recalls seeing duke at Mayfair nightclub with Giuffr The FBI has been passed information from a witness claiming to have seen the&nbsp;Duke of York&nbsp;at a nightclub with a woman who alleges the pair had sex when she was a teenager. The US lawyer Lisa Bloom, who is representing the [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"tpgb_global_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"tpgb_featured_images":{"full":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2555.jpg",600,360,false],"tp-image-grid":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2555.jpg",600,360,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2555-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2555-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2555.jpg",600,360,false],"large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/2555.jpg",600,360,false],"default":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/plugins\/the-plus-addons-for-block-editor\/assets\/images\/tpgb-placeholder.jpg"},"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"August 7, 2020","get_modified_date":"August 7, 2020","category_list":{"category":[{"term_id":19,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":19,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":238,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false},"author_name":"Hope To Heal","author_url":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/author\/hope2233\/","author_email":"webmaster@hopetoheal.org.za","author_website":"","author_description":"Our mission is for women and children to live free from violence and abuse and to provide quality, compassionate, and nonjudgmental services in a manner that fosters self-respect and independence in persons experiencing domestic violence and child abuse and to lead the struggle to end domestic violence through advocacy and community education.","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"Hope To","author_lastname":"Heal Foundation","user_login":"Hope2233","author_avatar":"<img alt='' src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00ba9733f71edb9653d7f34fee6719bfc21db4d30ee7e9a8d61ac758d1032f46?s=200&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00ba9733f71edb9653d7f34fee6719bfc21db4d30ee7e9a8d61ac758d1032f46?s=400&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g 2x' class='avatar avatar-200 photo' height='200' width='200' decoding='async'\/>","author_avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00ba9733f71edb9653d7f34fee6719bfc21db4d30ee7e9a8d61ac758d1032f46?s=96&d=mm&r=g","comment_count":0,"post_likes":0,"post_views":0},"tpgb_post_category":{"category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/category\/news\/\" alt=\"News\"  class=\"category-news\">News<\/a> "},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12649,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12647\/revisions\/12649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}