An aristocrat Prince Andrew once dated told last night how she almost fell into the clutches of his paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein.

Lady Victoria Hervey only escaped his sordid circle because she found a few nights alone in one of the monster’s notorious “sex flats” terrifying.

The former It Girl told how she was picked by Epstein’s alleged “madame” Ghislaine Maxwell to join the pervert tycoon’s elite circle of powerful friends 20 years ago when she was 23.

Ghislaine’s approach came after she was set up on a date with Andrew in 1999, but even though their relationship failed to take off, her position in their exclusive friendship group remained.

The socialite and Andrew were both invited to an intimate dinner with the pervert tycoon, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton in London the following year.

A year later she was invited to stay in one of the billionaire rapist’s luxury Manhattan flats, where she believes she was spied on and filmed.

Then unaware of Epstein’s obsession with underage girls he preyed on at his apartments, Victoria said she found the experience so “frightening” she fled after just a week.

“All I know is something about that flat did not feel right,” said Victoria. “Now, after reading about everything that went on, I’m shocked.

“It’s horrifying. It could have been me – but maybe I was too old. It is a scary thought.”

Stunned Victoria also blasted Andrew for carrying on his friendship with Epstein after the American was convicted of child sex charges.

She said: “He got sucked into a lifestyle of private jets, and parties. I think he was clueless.

“Andrew has something very naive about him. I honestly don’t think Andrew knew what was going on.”

As pressure grows on the Prince to give evidence in a US court of his relationship with Maxwell and Epstein, Victoria described how they were both lured into a world of money, power and influence at that dinner in 2000.

She explained: “I already knew Ghislaine socially. She was dating Jeffrey and they were the ‘It’ couple of New York.

“He knew everyone – he was the most connected person.

“She invited me to the dinner. Donald was there, Bill Clinton was there, and Prince Andrew who I had been on a date with the year before. I felt like I was being set up with him. He was very charming, we chatted a lot.”

But she said she rebuffed the Duke’s advances because she already had a boyfriend. “There were only about 10 people at the dinner, it was super powerful people,” said Victoria.

“Epstein was very charming. He played the host and liked to make an impression about connecting all these powerful people together. His whole vibe was about that.

“Ghislaine was very friendly with Andrew. They were laughing and got on like close friends.”

A year later, Victoria says Maxwell invited her to stay at one of Epstein’s New York apartments while she was pursuing her fashion and modelling career in the States.

Victoria, now 42, described the high rise flat, which had a view of Manhattan, as “sterile” and said it made her feel “uneasy”.

She explained: “Ghislaine told me, ‘He’s got so many apartments, you can stay in one of them’. I thought ‘amazing’.

“They had a driver pick me up from the airport. When I got there, I remember it felt like a hotel suite. There were no personal touches. It was quite sterile. I stayed for a week but I started to feel uneasy.

“I remember feeling like there were cameras in the room spying on me, that I was being watched. I just felt it in my gut. It didn’t feel right.

“My intuition was telling me that. I felt so unnerved I moved in with a friend of mine because I didn’t want to be on my own. I didn’t stay there again – that was it.”

Epstein – who committed suicide in his cell last month awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – was accused of using his New York properties to abuse young girls and reportedly forcing them to go with several of his rich and powerful friends.

Prince Andrew – who stayed friends with the paedophile after his 2008 child sex jail sentence – was seen inside one of the apartments getting a foot massage from a young woman, according to an email exchange between a US literary agent and Russian-born author Evgeny Morozov.

And one of Epstein’s alleged victims Virginia Roberts-Giuffre has claimed she was “lent out” to the Duke at one of the tycoon’s parties when she was 17. She has joined 14 other complainants at a court in New York, urging him to “come clean”. Buckingham Palace has branded all the allegations “false and without any foundation”.

The Prince, 59, is understood to have returned from a golfing holiday in Spain on Wednesday to hold talks with royal advisers over how to confront the claims.

Maxwell is accused in multiple lawsuits of recruiting teenage girls to Epstein’s child prostitution ring. She denies any wrongdoing.

Victoria appears in the “little black book” of contacts Epstein kept at his home, which is now in the possession of the FBI. She said she is devastated by the lurid accusations.

She kept in contact with Prince Andrew after the 2000 dinner and they would regularly bump into each other on nights out.

She also kept in contact with Maxwell but they never spoke of the accusations against Epstein.

She believes she was spared from Epstein’s rota of sex slaves because Maxwell was her friend.

She says: “I saw her up until about a year ago, and she seemed fine. Nothing seemed off. We never spoke about Epstein and what had happened. But it is creepy the whole thing. I would like to think that because I was a friend of Ghislaine that wouldn’t have happened to me.

“But it is a scary thought. I’m very relieved that I followed my intuition and left that apartment when I did."