PRINCE Andrew’s accuser has reportedly lost the infamous photo which appears to show the Duke of York with his arm around the teenager’s waist in a sensational twist ahead of next month’s civil case.
Lawyers representing Virginia Giuffre, who was known as Virginia Roberts at the time the photo was allegedly taken, say the original, supposedly snapped at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell by Jeffrey Epstein, has been misplaced.
The notorious photo shows a smiling 17-year-old Roberts with Andrew‘s arm around her bare midriff, as convicted sex trafficker Maxwell looks on in the background.
Sources close to Roberts claim the picture went missing while she was moving from Colorado in the US to Sydney, Australia, where she currently lives, at some point between 2011 and 2016.
In fact, insiders say, the original – which Andrew’s legal team have always claimed could have been faked – may not even exist anymore.
“The picture is not in Virginia’s possession,” a source close to Roberts told The Daily Beast.
According to the US publication, no one in Roberts’ legal team knows where the photo is, or has ever even seen the original.
The photo was reportedly stuffed into a storage box by Roberts while she was emigrating and went missing.
It comes after Prince Andrew’s lawyers demanded to see the original photo as part of their defence against sex crime allegations brought against the Queen’s favourite son.
The Duke’s legal team had hired a photography expert to assess the authenticity of the picture, the I newspaper reported.
Andrew has always said he doesn’t remember ever meeting Roberts, and strongly denies her claims that he had sex with her on three different occasions at houses belonging to Epstein or Maxwell.
Melissa Lerner, an LA-based lawyer representing the prince, has claimed the photo has helped to draw attention away from “inconsistencies” in Roberts’ account.
Asked if she believed the picture was a fake, she told The Daily Beast: “There are concerns about its authenticity. The legal team requested the original from Giuffre’s attorneys in November 2021, and it was not provided to them.”
The photo was reportedly printed on March 13, 2001, just two days after it was taken.
Roberts previously revealed she had lost the photo in 2016 as part of her deposition during a successful libel action against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, but her sworn testimony was only unsealed in 2020.
She said she gave the picture to the FBI in 2011 as part of its investigations into Epstein. The FBI has since declined to confirm whether it had been passed the photograph, or whether they had handed it back.
Sources close to her say they don’t believe the disappearance of the photo will affect the case as they will still look to admit a copy as evidence, and that her case doesn’t rest upon the picture.
Roberts’ lawyer David Boies is reportedly “not worried” about producing the original.
On March 10, Andrew faces a two-day grilling at the hands of Roberts’ legal team.
Andrew will be questioned by ace lawyers David Boies and Sigrid McCawley before they interview a woman who alleges she saw the prince with Roberts 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.
Boies has said he looks forward to looking the Duke in the eye – and has previously been dubbed ‘The Great Inquisitor’.
For his part, Andrew is reportedly being carefully prepared by his UK-based legal team over fears of a repeat of his car-crash 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis.
During the interview, the prince made a number of memorable claims, most notably, that he can’t sweat due to an overdose of adrenaline that he had during the Falklands War, and that on the night he is alleged to have been with Roberts in London, he was at Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey.
It has previously been reported that Andrew’s deposition will involve detailed questioning on both of these points.
Last month, a request from Roberts’ lawyers asked for any proof of his trip to Pizza Express, as well as “all documents concerning your alleged medical condition of anhidrosis, hypohidrosis, or… your inability to sweat”.
The Duke is set to be asked carefully about his movements around the time of the three alleged assaults in 2001.
In his filing with the US District Court in Manhattan, Andrew, 61, admitted meeting Epstein in or around 1999 but denied Roberts’ claim of sexual misconduct.
He is also facing difficult questions about his links to Maxwell, who last year was convicted of luring underage girls to be abused by Epstein.
Roberts, 38, could be allowed to conduct her deposition via video feed due to travel difficulties as a result of the pandemic.
Recently, a source close to the prince complained that his alleged victim still hasn’t confirmed any details of her own deposition.
“We agreed to voluntarily produce the Duke for a deposition on March 10,” they told The Celeb Report Online.
“Despite repeated requests, Ms Roberts still hasn’t committed to a date or location for her deposition.”
Boies previously confirmed he wouldn’t depose Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, or the Queen.
It came after Andrew learned he had been formally stripped of his royal titles and revealed he would have to face his US lawsuit as a “private citizen”.
He had been expected to agree to an out-of-court settlement with Roberts and was understood to pay £10m from the sale of his Swiss chalet to make this happen.
But a full civil trial with a jury could see Andrew cross-examined about his sex life, his links to Epstein and Maxwell, and asked exactly what he did to his accuser.
In his legal response to Roberts’ allegations, Andrew defiantly denied being close friends with Maxwell and doesn’t admit to knowing whether Epstein was a registered sex offender when he visited his home in 2010.
He also claimed he doesn’t know whether he invited Epstein to Beatrice’s 18th birthday, after a photo of the paedo billionaire alongside Maxwell and disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein surfaced from the 2006 event.
