The bizarre bathtub photograph that Ghislaine Maxwell thinks will prove Prince Andrew is innocent

THIS is the bizarre stunted picture Prince Andrew hopes will scrub clean his tarnished reputation.

Sitting fully clothed in a bath-tub, two people wear improvised masks depicting the Duke of York and his accuser Virginia Giuffre, for what Andrew’s pals believe will clear him of any wrongdoing.

Ian Maxwell, the brother of jailed socialite Ghislaine, has released the peculiar picture as “proof” Virginia is lying about “frolicking” in the tub with the royal — because, they claim, it is too SMALL for sex.

This is the latest in a long line of excuses from the prince that has also included a Pizza Express alibi, claims a picture of Andrew with his arm around Virginia is Photoshopped and his insistence that he is unable to break a sweat.

Last night royal expert Michael Cole said: “It’s another bizarre piece of a strange puzzle.

“This picture will be incredibly frustrating for the Palace, which must have thought this was all dead and buried.

“The last thing it wants is this case coming out of its coffin at a time when the King’s Coronation is just 96 days away.”

Social media is awash with commentators poking fun at the stunt, while others accuse the King’s younger brother of victim-shaming.

Prince Andrew last year paid out a reported £10million to settle a civil case with American-Australian Ms Giuffre, who claims he had sex with her while she was being trafficked by the late billionaire US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The duke was stripped of his HRH status, military titles and royal patronages following the out-of-court settlement.

But Andrew, 62, still maintains his innocence despite the payout, and it is believed he is now mounting a legal challenge to claw back the cash after 39-year-old Ms Giuffre admitted “making a mistake” in accusing high-profile US lawyer Alan Derschowitz, now 84, of also abusing her.

The bath photo has been offered up to the prince as “evidence” by the brother of disgraced Ghislaine, who was jailed in the States last June for 20 years for procuring teenage girls for Epstein.

Ms Giuffre claimed she and the Andrew frolicked in a Victorian-style bath at Ghislaine’s mews house in posh Belgravia in March 2001.

But the Maxwell family now protest that the tub is too small to have sex in — and even gave its dimensions, saying its base measures 1,359mm by 380mm.

Last night Ms Giuffre’s furious friends blasted the move as a “shameful stunt”.

One said: “If this is the best Maxwell’s side can do in defence of Prince Andrew, it’s laughable.

“It’s a disgusting attempt to discredit a victim of sexual abuse and would be risible if it were not so offensive.”

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represented several victims of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s sex-trafficking web, said: ‘What a surreal, bizarre photograph.

“It proves nothing.

“Virginia said that she and Andrew were in the bath.

“The photo shows that two full-sized humans can fit in the bath.

“Virginia said Andrew began by playing with her feet in the bath.

“The photo shows that would certainly be possible.

“Virginia said that she and Andrew then moved into the bedroom where the sexual activity occurred.

“Nothing in the photo disproves that.

“Ghislaine and her supporters must be getting desperate.

“Instead of continuing to attack victims, she should be apologising for the pain she has caused to so many.”

Ghislaine’s three-bedroom house in London’s Belgravia was also where Andrew was famously photographed with his arm around the bare waist of Ms Giuffre —  which pals claim was Photoshopped.

In a recent interview from her jail cell, Maxwell also alleged the picture was fake.

But damning new evidence blows a huge hole in Andrew’s potential defence because the original photo was taken on a Kodak disposable camera, and developed at a branch of US pharmacy chain Walgreens close to Ms Giuffre’s former home.

It is date-stamped three days after she and Andrew are alleged to have had sex.

Meanwhile it seems the bath picture — originally meant for use in Ghislaine’s court case — has failed to convince ordinary Brits, who have taken to Twitter to express their disgust and poke fun at the prince.

Dr Charlotte Proudman, a barrister and womens’ rights campaigner, tweeted: “What perverse entertainment is this?

“Victim of sex trafficking mocked by Ghislaine Maxwell’s family so Prince Andrew’s reputation can be restored from alleged sex abuser to man who apparently can’t fit in the bath with a 17-year-old girl?”

George Clarkson tweeted: “But he’s too big for the bath, was in Pizza Express and is unable to sweat. Does he think that we’re all mugs?”

Dad Dominic English, from London, said: “Literally no man alive would look at that bath and say, ‘That’s definitely too small for sexual activity. Thanks, but I think I’ll leave it.”

Another tweet, from Lesley Lickley, showed a picture of Paddington Bear surfing down stairs in a bathtub.

An accompanying caption read: “For everyone whose eyes are still bleeding from seeing a mock-up of #PrinceAndrew in the bath.”

Lauren Alder, of Somerset, tweeted: “Not sure dressing up as a trafficked minor and Prince Andrew in a bath is quite the game-changer that these clowns think it is.”

In a Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019, Andrew claimed he could not have had sex with Ms Guiffre in Ghislaine’s house because he had been at home after going to a kids’ party with daughter Beatrice at Pizza Express in Woking.

He also denied being in London’s Tramp nightclub on the same night, where Ms Giuffre claims he was “sweating profusely” as they danced.

The duke claimed he could not sweat at the time because he had “suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands war, when I was shot at”.

US attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represents nine of Epstein’s victims, slammed the bath picture defence as “absurd”.

He said: “They seem to be saying Virginia was in the house after all. It undermines their case.

“As for Ghislaine’s comments about the genuine photo of Andrew with Virginia at her home in London, it shows a lot of the work is being done on his behalf — he’s desperate to rehabilitate his image.

‘Last thing Palace wants before the Coronation’

“It’s a public relations exercise, not so much a legal one.

“He and his lawyers have realised they have an impossible hill to climb.”

Michael Cole, a former BBC royal correspondent who conducted the prince’s first TV interview in 1986, says Andrew may feel he has nothing left to lose after being stripped of his royal status.

Michael said: “One has to wonder whether this is being done because he’s been told by his brother (Charles) that there’s no way back for him into royal life, that he’s banished into darkness as far as a royal role is concerned.

“Maybe he thinks that if he has any hope of returning to royal life, then he has got to go out of his way to say that the allegations against him are false.”

Michael said Palace aides will be “pulling their hair out” if the prince launches a legal case to prove his innocence.

He added: “Having cleared away this case in order for it not to overshadow the Queen’s Jubilee, to have it re-emerge now 96 days from the King’s Coronation is the last thing the Palace wants.”

He suspects Andrew’s legal team are working to establish a “false memory” defence.

It comes after Ms Giuffre dropped her allegations against Mr Dershowitz — who defended American football star OJ Simpson in his 1995 murder trial — where he was acquitted before losing a later civil trial — and British society figure Claus von Bulow who was convicted then later cleared of killing his heiress wife.

Michael added: “In Prince Andrew’s catastrophic Newsnight interview he said he had never met Virginia Roberts, as she was then.

“The bath picture is only relevant because Ms Giuffre depicted it as a free-standing Victorian bath, when this is quite clearly an ordinary bath against a wall.

“They are trying to establish that Ms Giuffre, talking about events 20 years earlier, has a false memory.

“I can only speculate that any defence case hangs also on the fact she falsely identified Alan Dershowitz as another of the powerful men she says abused her.

“I think it would have been much better if, at the beginning, Prince Andrew sat down with his lawyers, with his representatives beside him, and answered in a deposition the questions that were being posed by the FBI and Ms Giuffre’s lawyers.

“We have to give him the respect of being the Queen’s second son but any normal person who knew they hadn’t done something would say, ‘Let’s get this sorted, it wasn’t me, I never met her, I was somewhere else’.”

…and this picture is not a fake

NEW evidence has emerged that the photo of Andrew and Ms Giuffre which emerged 12 years ago is NOT fake, despite claims by him and Maxwell.

It was first printed in the Mail on Sunday, which has has now provided proof it is genuine.

Experienced photographer Michael Thomas, who got a copy of it from the journalist who discovered it, said yesterday: “It looked ten years old.

“It wasn’t crisp because it had been developed in 2001.

“For Maxwell to say it was fake is ridiculous.”

He also photographed its back, and a stamp saying “000 #15 13Mar01 Walgreens One Hour Photo”.

It suggests it was developed at US chemist’s Walgreen, in one hour on March 13, 2001 – three days after Ms Giuffre says she had sex with Andrew.

The store is near where she lived.