PRINCE Andrew’s lawyers are said to be planning to present his rape accuser Virginia Roberts as a sex trafficker by allegedly using evidence from a Jeffrey Epstein victim.
The Duke’s legal team seeking a sworn testimony from Carolyn Andriano who claims she was recruited by Roberts, now Giuffre, at 14 and was trained to give ex-paedo banker sexual massages.
But the move could backfire dramatically because Andriano recently corroborated claims that Roberts had sex with Andrew at convicted sex predator Ghislaine Maxwell’s home when she was 17.
The Duke has strenuously denied the claims made against him.
Andrew’s lawyers are also seeking other women who may have been recruited by Roberts while they were under age to testify, according to the Sunday Times.
A source familiar with the Duke’s strategy told the paper his legal team were “interested in speaking with and interviewing anyone and everyone who has information relevant to these allegations”.
It comes as the Duke, 61, was handed a date for a two-day grilling by Roberts’ lawyers starting on March 10.
Andrew will be questioned by ace lawyers David Boies and Sigrid McCawley before they interview a woman who alleges she saw the prince with Ms Giuffre at London’s Tramp nightclub in 2001, the same night as the notorious photo.
His former royal aide Robert Ashton Olney will also be questioned by Boies, 80, who has a fearsome reputation as the “greatest deposition-taker” in modern US justice.
Roberts, who now lives in Australia, has yet to agree to a date to be interviewed under oath by Andrew’s lawyers.
The 38-year-old mum is suing the prince in New York in a civil case for alleged sexual assault and battery.
She claims she was trafficked as a teenager to the Queen‘s favourite son through Epstein and Maxwell and had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions in 2001 – once as Maxwell’s Belgravia flat, another time at Epstein’s New York mansion and a third time on the paedo’s Caribbean island Little St James.
The Prince’s legal team have unsuccessfully tried to get the case thrown out on technical grounds but are now recalibrating their strategy ahead of the jury trial set for later this year.
‘WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T SAY YOUR AGE’
They argue Roberts shouldn’t be compensated because she was complicit in a “criminal enterprise” – the so-called “unclean hands” defence.
In court papers filed last month, they stated: “Giuffre’s alleged causes of action are barred in whole or in part by her own wrongful conduct and the doctrine of unclean hands”.
If Andriano refuses to testify, she could be held in contempt of court and be fined or face jail time.
Now 35 and living in Florida, Andriano’s testimony was crucial in the jailing of Epstein co-accomplice Maxwell to 65 years in prison in December last year.
She revealed in court that Robets had approached her about “making some money” at Epstein’s homes.
Andriano waived her anonymity last month when she told the Daily Mail she was just 14 when she was lured into Epstein’s sick world.
She said: “I definitely could pass for 21 when I was made up.
“I did my own make-up, but Virginia gave me clothes. She gave me these really tight skimpy shorts with a spaghetti-strap top with all my cleavage hanging out.
“She just said: ‘Whatever you do, don’t say your age.’ And I didn’t even ask why. I went along with it.”
She recalled giving Epstein a nude massage and seeing Giuffre have sex with him.
“I didn’t know what to do or say, or where to go, so I sat on the couch and watched until it was finished,” she later said.
“We walked back downstairs and Maxwell asked, ‘How did everything go?’ Virginia gave her a look to say it was a great session and that’s when Maxwell asked me for my telephone number.”
She was paid $300 and would return to the villa about 100 times over the next four years where she was repeatedly abused by Epstein.
“I don’t think Virginia deserves anything less than what Maxwell is getting because she trafficked me into a world of spiralling downward slopes,” she told the Mail.
But in the same interview, Andriano confirmed that Roberts had texted her in 2001 saying she had slept with the Duke and showed her a copy of the now infamous photograph of Andrew with his arm around Roberts as a teen.
“I asked her if she’d been to the palace,” Andriano said, adding: “And she said ‘I got to sleep with him’.
“I said ‘What? You’re f***ing with me’, and she said, ‘No, I got to sleep with him’.
“She didn’t seem upset about it. She thought it was pretty cool.”
Lawyers for the prince are said to be plotting to use Roberts’ comments to Andriano to claim the teen had been boasting and that the allegation was impossible to prove.
The Duke’s legal team have also claimed the photo of him and Roberts together was a fake and have request the original version.
Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, has previously said: “Virginia has said for years that her role in facilitating other young women’s involvement is something that she has always regretted.
“But that fact doesn’t have anything to do with the truth of her allegations [against Prince Andrew].”
The Celeb Report Online has contacted Mr Boies for comment.
A spokeswoman for the duke declined to comment.
