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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Matt Mathers

‘No room for frolicking’: Ghislaine Maxwell brother stages bizarre photo to clear Prince Andrew of ‘bath sex’ claim

Getty Images

A bizarre photo of two people in the bath where the Duke of York was alleged to have abused a teenager discredits his accuser’s claims, Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother believes.

In the image, two acquaintances of Maxwell can be seen sitting facing one another, fully clothed and wearing masks depicting Prince Andrew and his accuser, Virginia Giuffre.

Ms Giuffre has claimed that Andrew raped and abused her three times in 2001 when she was 17, which he denies.

She said that one of the alleged incidents started in the bath at Maxwell’s mews house in Belgravia, west London.

Maxwell’s older brother Ian claims that the photo proves the bath is too small for the alleged incident to have taken place.

“I am releasing my photographs now because the truth needs to come out,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

He also revealed the dimensions of the bath to the newspaper - with the base measuring 1,359mm by 380mm.

Mr Maxwell claimed that the image shows “conclusively” that the bath is too small for any sort of “sex frolicking” to have taken place in it.

“There is no ‘Victorian bath’, as Giuffre has claimed, which is proved both by the attached plan of the bathroom and the photos themselves,” he added.

Duke of York reached a multilimillion pound settlement with Giuffre in a civil case (REUTERS)

Disgraced socialite Maxwell was jailed for 20 years in 2022 after being found guilty of helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein traffic and abuse young girls between 1994 and 2004.

Ms Giuffre is one of his victims and said she was trafficked to London with help from Maxwell.

Last year Maxwell appealed against her conviction in New York despite apologising to her victims during her trial.

Mr Maxwell released the photo after reports emerged saying Andrew was planning to launch a legal bid to overturn the multimillion-pound settlement with Ms Giuffre.

Maxwell in prison (Talk TV/PA)

Andrew was said to be considering his legal options after Ms Giuffre dropped a separate sexual abuse claim against US lawyer Alan Dershowitz. She said she might have “made a mistake”.

Andrew reportedly believes the “extraordinary” development raised questions about Ms Giuffre’s credibility.

But King Charles, Andrew’s brother,  subsequently threw him out of his Buckingham Palace flat and told him there was no longer a place for him at the monarch’s main residence in central London, according to The Sun.

Andrew and Maxwell have both previously suggested a photo showing them together with Ms at Maxwell’s house, where the alleged incident took place, is not real.

(US Department of Justice/PA)

Maxwell repeated the claim again in an interview broadcast earlier in the week from the Florida jail where she is serving her sentence.

“We can’t really establish the photograph and all that,” she told TalkTV.  “I don’t know if that’s true, if that’s a real picture or not.”

Maxwell said that “I know Virginia travelled with Jeffrey” but that she didn’t “remember” her being in her home.

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