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The queen's son, Prince Andrew, has been dragged into the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, which kicked off in New York this week.
The former girlfriend of late American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is on trial for helping to find, groom and deliver underage girls to the billionaire and his high-profile pals between 1994 and 2004.
Among the first witnesses was Larry Visoki, the former pilot of Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the Lolita Express.
He told the court he flew a string of Epstein’s VIP guests around, including the Duke of York, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and disgraced actor Kevin Spacey.
It was initially thought that Maxwell, who is the daughter of late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, would try to protect her friends in high places, but it was her own lawyer who threw in the royal’s name.
READ MORE | Shackled Ghislaine Maxwell ‘forced to crawl’ to police van to attend hearing
“Are you aware of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, he is the son of Queen Elizabeth II of England?" Christian Everdell asked Visoki, to which Visoki replied, “Yes”.
“Did he fly on Epstein’s planes?”
He replied “yes” but could not give details as to when exactly.
The pilot, who worked for Epstein between 1991 and 2019, also said he never saw any sexual activity on board the three jets he flew, but that he stayed in the cockpit most of the time.
He also said he could not remember any of the names of the girls connected to Epstein, but did recall meeting one of the accusers, who has said she was 14 when Epstein and Maxwell recruited her for sex.
Visoki said he remembered her being “a mature woman with piercing powder-blue eyes”.
Four women are set to testify and will be known in court as Annie, Kate, Jane and Carolyn.
READ MORE | Prince Andrew slams Virginia Giuffre as ‘publicity-hungry liar out for a payday’
The shocking claim came as the Duke of York was pictured grinning while riding his horse through Windsor on Tuesday.
He is not part of the criminal case. However he is facing a civil lawsuit, filed against him in August by Virginia Giuffre, Epstein's most outspoken former victim. She has accused Andrew of having sex with her when she was underage.
Sources: yahoo.com, dailymail.co.uk
