Prince Andrew was at London club with Virginia Giuffre and not at Pizza Express with daughter, new witness says
A new witness has corroborated claims made by Jeffrey Epstein’s “sex slave” Virginia Giuffre that she danced with Prince Andrew at a nightclub before allegedly having sex with the royal. Shukri Walker contradicted the Duke of York's contention that he wasn't there, telling The Sun how she remembered him "dancing and chatting with the young girl."
Giuffre has maintained she was forced to have sex with the prince after they left the Tramp nightclub in Mayfair back in March 2001. Andrew, however, denies the claim saying he couldn't have been at the club that night because he took his daughter Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Surrey at the time. Nonetheless, Walker is confident she saw the royal dancing with Giuffre because she claims she apologized to him after stepping on his foot by mistake.
“He was smiling. He said, ‘No problem,’” she told the outlet.
Andrew is under intense scrutiny following the July 2 arrest of Epstein’s accused confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, who is being held at the Brooklyn Detention Center awaiting trial. Walker said she was compelled to speak out after watching the prince deny the story in a trainwreck BBC 'Newsnight' interview over his relationship with Epstein, who died last year in prison under mysterious circumstances while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
The new witness reportedly contacted Lisa Bloom, an attorney who is representing several alleged Epstein victims, who subsequently passed the information on to the FBI. Bloom said that all Walker “wanted was to get her story to the FBI as a witness to help Virginia. So she wasn’t seeking any money from anyone. She wasn’t looking to bring a lawsuit,” according to The Sun. “But the agency decided it did not need the woman’s testimony,” Bloom explained. “They said, ‘We have the story, thank you. And we don’t need to bother her.'"
Walker told The Sun, “When I watched the BBC interview and saw Prince Andrew deny knowing Virginia, saying he has no recollection of that night, I had to come forward.”
She recalled that she and a male friend had been dancing while the prince was sitting with a group in a corner. “I can remember exactly where they were sitting. They had one of those coolers with ice and a bottle in. In fact, probably two of those. You could tell they were getting special treatment,” Walker said.
“The man I was with went over there and started talking to them and then came back. Then at some point, I was dancing with him and stood on the feet of one of the men sitting in the corner and I said, ‘I’m sorry,’” she continued.
“And he was smiling. He said, ‘No problem.’ My companion said that the man who I stood on was actually Prince Andrew,” Walker said. “I’d never seen a prince in my life before. I just stood and looked at this man, thinking, ‘Oh my goodness. It’s a real prince.’
“He was smiling a lot, most of the night,” she added. “He looked like he was having a great time. And he was with this young girl who was close to my own age, perhaps even a bit younger than me."
“They were not that alone. They were with the woman who has just been arrested, Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein,” she said. “I will never forget the night because I was told this is a real prince. That’s the moment that stood out for me. I don’t think I would have remembered otherwise.”
Walker claimed to remember that Giuffre had an “awkward expression" at the time. “I do remember the little girl perhaps was a little bit drunk or just had a weird expression, an awkward expression,” she told The Sun. “But she wasn’t smiling, it was the opposite of smiles.”
Giuffre has claimed Andrew was "sweating profusely" as they danced that night. However, the prince told the BBC that it was impossible for him to sweat due to an unidentified medical condition.
However, Walker said she saw the prince wipe his face at the club. “He was using the back of his hand. I don’t know with all honesty if he was wiping it because he was sweating or just touching it,” she said. “But he wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand when he was dancing several times.”
36-year-old Giuffre claims the royal later had sex with her at Maxwell's house in London. “The more the evidence comes out, the more confirmation there is that the Epstein survivors are telling the truth, and that the denials and attacks of the Epstein enablers and participants are a smokescreen," David Boies, Giuffre’s attorney, told The Sun.
Buckingham Palace has brushed off Giuffre’s allegations as “false and without any foundation.”