Yet vital evidence that could put Andrew in the clear is likely to stay secret

The Prince is accused of having sex with Epstein's under-age 'sex slave'

Came as Duchess of York sprang to defence of her ex-husband, Andrew

Scale of the alleged cover-up was revealed as files became public

Those who did not cooperate with him were

The sheer scale of the alleged cover-up of under-age sex crimes by Prince Andrew’s paedophile friend can be revealed today.

Jeffrey Epstein made extraordinary efforts to stop the young girls he abused from speaking to the FBI, court papers claim.

He is said to have tracked them down and promised to ‘look after’ them if they kept quiet.

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'Harassment': Jeffrey Epstein is said to have verbally abused Nadia Marcinkova (far left), pressuring her not to cooperate with the grand jury’s investigation after becoming concerned that the FBI would try to serve her

Supporting her ex: Sarah Ferguson broke cover in Switzerland yesterday (left) to speak up for her ex-husband (right, with Epstein in 2011), who has been accused of having sex with Epstein's under-age 'sex slave'

Those who did not cooperate were apparently harassed or warned ‘bad things’ would happen to them if they helped federal investigators.

The files became public yesterday as the Duchess of York sprang to the defence of her ex-husband, who has been accused of having sex with Epstein’s under-age ‘sex slave’.

Yet vital evidence that could put Andrew in the clear is likely to remain secret. The Mail can reveal that 13,000 secret documents containing crucial testimony have been locked away by US prosecutors.

The papers can be used only if a judge gives the go-ahead, meaning the truth about claims made against the prince by the alleged slave, Virginia Roberts, will never be known. He fiercely denies her accusations.

In other developments:

Andrew was said to be plotting a ‘rearguard action’ with palace aides as he remained holed up at his Windsor mansion;

Aides insisted the Duke was ‘resilient’ and would ‘push on’ with his duties despite the scandal engulfing him;

The palace was rocked by claims that Miss Roberts is planning a tell-all book.

WITNESS'S 'SCRIPTED' REPLIES TO POLICE OFFICERS' QUESTIONING Court papers reveal the reluctance of witnesses to testify against Jeffrey Epstein. In an affidavit, a Florida police officer says he questioned a girl who claimed nothing untoward had happened between her and the billionaire paedophile. It said: ‘The girl appeared nervous. As I sensed hesitancy, I asked the girl if she had been contacted by anyone from Epstein’s organisations or his house. The girl stated she was interviewed already by a private investigator for Epstein. ‘He identified himself as “Paul” and inquired about the police investigation and left his telephone number. The girl provided no additional information as it appeared her responses were almost scripted.’ On one occasion, Epstein is said to have diverted his plane to stop federal agents interviewing his aide Nadia Marc-inkova. Advertisement

Yesterday, the Mail reported how Epstein employed an ‘army of legal superstars’ to persuade prosecution lawyers to sign a controversial agreement which may have given Andrew immunity from prosecution.

Many of the charges against Epstein and any ‘co-conspirators’ were removed in return for him pleading guilty to a relatively minor charge of soliciting an under-age girl for prostitution, for which he served just 13 months.

His lawyers then fought to make sure it was kept secret, claiming Epstein’s victims did not have any legal right to know the deal had been struck. They are said also to have carried out a shameful campaign against the state prosecutors who had brought the sex case against him.

It can now be revealed prosecutors also believed Epstein was tampering with potential witnesses. The fears are revealed in a document entitled ‘Statement of Undisputed Facts’ drawn up by a US state attorney on September 18, 2007, when prosecutors were finalising the non-prosecution agreement with Epstein.

The prosecutor described how, in August 2007, two FBI agents went to the home of Epstein’s personal assistant Lesley Groff to serve her with a federal grand jury subpoena in relation to the Epstein investigation.

Miss Groff disappeared upstairs and then rang Epstein, to inform them that the FBI were at her house. The prosecutor said: ‘Mr Epstein instructed Miss Groff not to speak with the agents and reprimanded her for allowing them into her home.

‘Mr Epstein applied pressure to keep Miss Groff from complying with the grand jury subpoena that the agents had served upon her.’ The document continues: ‘This conversation occurred when Mr Epstein was aboard his privately owned civilian aircraft in Miami. ‘His pilot had file a flight plan showing these parties were about to return to Teterboro, New Jersey.

Scandal: Miss Roberts, a married mother of three, is said to be writing a book that threatens to tell all about her alleged involvement with the Duke of York. Above, Miss Roberts pictured in Denver, Colorado, yesterday

‘After the conversation with Miss Groff, Mr Epstein became concerned that the FBI would try to serve his travelling companion, Nadia Marcinkova, with target letter when they landed in Teterboro. Mr Epstein then re-directed his plane, making the pilot file a new flight plan to the US Virgin Islands instead of the New York city area, thereby keeping the special agents from serving the target letter on Nadia Marcinkova.’

He is said to have verbally abused Miss Marcinkova during the flight, harassing and pressuring her not to cooperate with the grand jury’s investigation. The paedophile billionaire intimidated other alleged victims, according to the court papers.

Miss Roberts, a married mother of three, is said to be writing a book that threatens to tell all about her alleged involvement with the Duke of York.

One of her closest friends said she started planning the book at least a year ago.

Mistake: Last night Virginia Roberts' father Sky (pictured with his daughter, then aged seven) apologised for wrongly suggesting that his daughter may have met the Queen while working for Epstein

Aides said there are no plans for Andrew to seek legal representation or redress in the United States at the moment.

‘This is a long-running civil case to which the duke is not a party in which there have already been many twists and turns,’ said one. ‘There was no desire to see this battled out in the court of public opinion but the duke didn’t have an opportunity to respond through the US courts. He took the decision that because these accusations were false he needed people to know that’

Buckingham Palace said last night that it would not be making any further comment.

Miss Roberts’s father had suggested his daughter may have met the Queen while working for Epstein.

Last night, however, Sky Roberts apologised, said he had made a mistake and was ‘sorry for any misunderstanding’.

Additional reporting: Sam Marsden & Sam Greenhill

Andrew is the greatest man and marrying him was the finest moment in my life, says Fergie

By Rebecca English and Arthur Martin in Verbier for the Daily Mail

Low profile: Sarah Ferguson appeared in public for the first time, pictured, since her former husband was accused of having sex with an underage girl

The Duchess of York made an extraordinary defence of her former husband Prince Andrew yesterday, calling him ‘the greatest man there is’.

Sarah Ferguson appeared in public for the first time since the Duke of York was accused of having sex with an underage girl ‘procured’ for him by his billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein.

The duchess has kept a low profile at the luxury £22,000-a-week Swiss ski chalet where she has been holidaying with Andrew and their younger daughter Eugenie.

But yesterday she went for a mountain walk dressed in black sportswear and clutching hiking poles. Choosing her words carefully, she declined to comment directly on the scandal engulfing her former husband.

Asked by the Daily Mail if she was sticking by the duke, she replied: ‘The York family is a tight unit. We’ve always been a tight unit.

‘He is the greatest man there is. It was the finest moment of my life in 1986 when I married him. He is a great man, the best man in the world.’

Sarah made no mention of the £15,000 she received from Epstein in December 2010 to help her pay off her mounting debts.

The deal was struck some 18 months after Epstein was released from jail for soliciting prostitution from under-age girls. It came within days of the duke flying out to visit Epstein in New York, fuelling speculation he had smoothed the path for his ex-wife to take the money.

Sarah later claimed her judgment had been ‘clouded’ by her desperation to get out of her £5million debt and vowed to repay the money.

She and Andrew married in 1986, but separated in 1992 before finally divorcing four years later. However, they remain close and regularly holiday together at the Swiss ski resort of Verbier.

Sarah, 55, was with Andrew, 54, last Friday when US court papers were released accusing him of having sex with a 17-year-old girl ‘procured’ for him by Epstein.

Virginia Roberts says she was ‘procured for sexual activities’ for Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite daughter of crooked tycoon Robert Maxwell. Miss Maxwell also appeared in public yesterday for the first time since the scandal broke.

Andrew, who spent last week holidaying in the chalet, flew back to the UK by private jet on Sunday afternoon with Eugenie. Sources say there are no immediate plans for him to travel to Norfolk, where the Queen is in residence until early February, although it was indicated they had spoken by phone.

It is understood that the prince has been fashioning a battle plan with his private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, a former banker who has been trying to rebuild his public image as an unofficial champion for British business. Royal lawyers Harbottle and Lewis have also been on speed-dial and have written to the British media reminding them of Andrew’s categorical denials of the allegations against him.

Back to face the music: Andrew, who spent last week holidaying in the chalet, flew back to the UK by private jet on Sunday afternoon with Eugenie. Above, the Duke of York looked pensive as he left Verbier yesterday

Privately, aides continue to insist it is ‘business as usual’ for the prince, whose next public appearance is likely to be at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21. It is believed that he will also host a reception there in his personal capacity on behalf of business leaders, as he has done in previous years. A source said: ‘The duke is nothing if not resilient and will not go to ground.’

Andrew was forced to step down from his role as a globe-trotting UK trade ambassador when news of his continuing friendship with Epstein following the paedophile’s release from prison broke in 2010.

Ten questions the Palace MUST answer

By Guy Adams for the Daily Mail

Soon the murky affair of Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts will face scrutiny via a series of sensational cases due to come before the U.S. courts. But as the scandal escalates, here are ten questions the Royal Household must address…

Meeting: This photograph of Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts was taken late one night in 2001

1 You have denied that Prince Andrew had ‘any kind of sexual relationship or contact with Virginia Roberts’. He certainly did meet her, however: a photograph was taken late one night in early 2001 of the pair together at a London apartment owned by Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the shamed late newspaper boss Robert Maxwell.

The picture shows the Duke of York’s left hand cradling Ms Roberts’s bare midriff. At the time, she was 17; he, on the other hand, was a 40-year-old father of two. So how did this image come to be taken?

2 Ms Roberts claims to have first met Prince Andrew at Ms Maxwell’s property the previous afternoon. During this initial encounter (over tea and biscuits), Roberts says the Prince was asked to guess her age. Andrew correctly estimated that she was 17, prompting Ms Maxwell to reportedly joke that Jeffrey Epstein ‘would soon have to trade her in’. Did the Prince indeed meet her that day?

3 According to Ms Roberts — in a legal claim filed in Florida last month — she and Prince Andrew had sexual contact in the hours after they returned from the Mayfair nightclub Tramp.

This, you have vehemently denied. Ms Roberts claims, however, that this alleged tryst was far from being a one-off: she says that she met the Prince on a second occasion at Epstein’s apartment in New York at Easter 2001.

When she arrived that day, she alleges that the Duke of York was seated in a leather armchair in the library, with a girl called Johanna Sjoberg on his knee.

So did Prince Andrew meet Ms Roberts at Epstein’s apartment at Easter 2001? And, furthermore, has he ever met Miss Sjoberg?

4 The lawsuit, filed last month at Florida District Court in West Palm Beach, alleges that a third sexual encounter took place shortly afterwards in 2001, on Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Ms Roberts claims that she and ‘seven Russian girls’ were ‘told to assemble in a big cabana’ on the island, where Prince Andrew and Epstein were sitting in armchairs.

You have described her claims as ‘false and without foundation’. But did the Prince ever visit Epstein’s private island? If so, why? And did he ever meet Ms Roberts there?

5 Jeffrey Epstein’s former handyman Juan Alessi alleges that Prince Andrew attended naked swimming pool parties at the billionaire’s Florida mansion in the early 2000s and was treated to regular massages by a harem of adolescent girls there.

Visit: Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were among guests on this pheasant shoot, attended by Andrew (right), at Sandringham, Norfolk, after the Prince and the US businessman apparently became friends

In sworn legal papers filed in 2011, Alessi described the house as being full of pictures of naked young women, and said that the Prince stayed in a blue guest room which contained soap in the shape of male and female genitalia.

He also claimed to have set up massage tables on which the royal guest was treated on a daily basis.

You have, of course, robustly denied wrongdoing. But did the Prince indeed ever stay at Epstein’s Florida home? If so, why? Did he share its swimming pool with naked young women? Did he ever receive massages from young women there?

6 Prince Andrew appears to have regarded Epstein as a close friend. The American was invited to visit Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor Castle as a guest of the Queen. In turn, the Prince was invited, and agreed to go, on holiday to Thailand with him, where he was photographed on Epstein’s yacht surrounded by topless women.

Ms Ferguson admitted that accepting money from Epstein had been ‘a gigantic error of judgment’

Despite the scrutiny it attracted, the Palace has never explained the exact nature of Prince Andrew’s relationship with Epstein.

Were they purely social acquaintances? Or did they ever have wider business or financial links? Did the Prince have any idea of his criminal behaviour?

7 In 2005, police began investigating Epstein’s abuse of young girls. The following year, they filed an affidavit saying that he should be charged with four counts of unlawful sex with a minor and one of molestation. In the meantime, dozens of alleged victims came forward. The case was settled in 2008, when Epstein struck a deal with prosecutors: he agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he would be jailed for 18 months.

In return, all other inquiries were dropped and immunity granted to a number of Epstein’s alleged associates, including Ms Maxwell.

That deal remains highly controversial, with many feeling that Epstein got off excessively lightly.

A lawsuit filed in Florida last month now claims that Prince Andrew was among those who made ‘efforts’ on behalf of Epstein ‘to persuade the [U.S.] government to give him a more favourable plea arrangement and/or non-prosecution agreement’.

In response, you have said that ‘the Duke would never interfere in an active legal case and did not do so in this case’.

But while he may not have ‘interfered’, did he discuss Epstein, formally or informally, with any person connected with the U.S. government, or U.S. authorities, during the period from 2005-2008 when his friend was under investigation?

8 Prince Andrew visited New York and Washington in September 2006, and Florida in February 2008. Did he discuss Epstein’s case with anyone at all during any of those visits? And did he meet Epstein, or anyone connected with him, during those trips?

Official records show that Andrew also met with Sir David Manning, the then UK ambassador to Washington, in September 2006, and also with the then Foreign Office minister Kim Howells in July 2005.

Was Jeffrey Epstein’s case discussed at any of those meetings? And did the Prince raise his case, formally or informally, with any person connected to the British government?

9 In 2010, after Epstein had been imprisoned for soliciting girls for underage prostitution, the Duke of York’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, agreed to accept a gift of £15,000 from him, in order to help clear her debts.

After this was revealed by the Press in 2011, Ms Ferguson admitted that accepting the money had been ‘a gigantic error of judgment’.

Was Prince Andrew aware of this gift? Did he help solicit it? And has the tainted money since been returned to Epstein?

10 Finally, in 2011, after Jeffrey Epstein had been freed from prison, the News of the World published a photograph of him strolling with Prince Andrew in New York’s Central Park.

The image caused widespread outrage, and led to the Prince’s resignation as Britain’s roving Trade Ambassador.