Maxwell says Epstein was murdered and Prince Andrew pic is fake

Disgraced Ghislaine Maxwell insists sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in prison and reckons the infamous photograph of Prince Andrew standing beside Virginia Giuffre is fake. The 61 year old added she wished she had never met Epstein.

The convicted sex trafficker made the claims on a televised phone call to the British TV programme the Jeremy Kyle Show yesterday. Maxwell insisted Epstein was murdered in jail while he faced charges of trafficking underage girls and did not commit suicide.

Maxwell, daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, is imprisoned in a Florida jail for 20 years after her conviction for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls.

The 66 year old US financier is reported to have hung himself in a New York jail in August 2019.

“I believe that he was murdered. I was shocked. Then I wondered how it had happened because as far as I was concerned, he was going to… I was sure he was going to appeal. And I was sure he was covered under the non-prosecution agreement.”

In 2019, a forensic pathologist hired by Epstein’s brother stated that the evidence indicated Epstein had been murdered, citing multiple fractures in his neck as “very unusual for suicide.”

Despite this, the US Department of Justice’s investigation into Epstein’s death in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre did not reveal any evidence of foul play.

Two prison guards who admitted to falsifying records related to the night of Epstein’s death were charged in 2019 for their failure to monitor him, but the charges were dismissed in late 2021 after they completed community service as part of an earlier legal agreement.

Maxwell, who is appealing her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking minors, also insisted she now regrets ever meeting Epstein.

“Clearly my association and the fact that I worked for him and spent time with him and knew him has devastated my life and hurt many people that I’ve loved and hold dear around me.

“I didn’t know that he was so awful. I mean, obviously now, looking back with hindsight, of course.

“But at the time, I mean he had lots of friends. He was friendly with just about everybody you could imagine. There was no reason to imagine that he was someone who was capable of evil.”

During Maxwell’s high-profile trial in New York, US prosecutors established that she played a central role in Epstein’s scheme of luring young girls to give him massages, during which he would sexually abuse them. Maxwell said she was “sorry for the pain that you experienced” but blamed Epstein.

“Epstein has died and they should take their disappointment and upset out on the authorities that allowed that to happen. I hope that they have some closure via the judicial process that took place.

“And I wish them … to be able to have a productive and good life going forward.”

Maxwell also claimed that a decades-old photograph of Prince Andrew with his sexual abuse accuser Giuffre is “fake,” although she fails to mention their relationship.

“I don’t believe it’s real for a second.”

Giuffre has said she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to, among others, the Duke of York, King Charles III’s younger brother.

The 39 year old sued the discredited royal in a US court, claiming they had sex in London when she was 17 and a minor under US law.

He settled the sexual assault lawsuit, believed to be US$12 million, to spare him the public humiliation of a trial.

The 62 year old has not been criminally charged and has continued to deny the accusations.

The photograph of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s waist and Maxwell standing next to them said to have been taken in London in 2001, is seen as crucial to the claim against the prince.