Convicted human trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell claims that an iconic image of Britainâs Prince Andrew snaking his arm around the waist of then-17-year-old Virginia Giuffre is a fake.
In 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor, according to the Justice Department.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the sex trafficking operation run by Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 in a New York City detention facility in a death that has been ruled as suicide.
According to The Sun, during an interview filmed at the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institute, Maxwell said, âI have no memory of them meeting. And I donât think that picture is real.â
âThere is no original of that photo, (just) copies of copies and parts of it, according to some experts, look like it has been photoshopped. I donât remember her in my home,â she said.
Maxwell noted that the possibility that such an image could exist is not absurd.
âI know that Virginia traveled with Jeffrey, and so itâs entirely possible. It wasnât something so outrageously out of left field that it couldnât have happened,â she said.
âBut the photo doesnât appear to be real. And I donât recall it being taken. I have no memory of Virginia and Prince Andrew meeting,â she said.
Prince Andrew last year settled with Giuffre, who is now Virginia Roberts. Roberts had sued the prince claiming she was forced to have sex with him at the age of 17.
Maxwell has said before that the picture might be a fraud.
In an interview last year with author Daphne Barak published by the Daily Mail she said the 2001 image, which Roberts has said is authentic, might not have been an actual photograph.
âAt this time, I no longer believe that to be a true image, and I donât believe that it is what it appears to be,â Maxwell said in that interview.
Although in a 2015 comment she indicated the image appeared real, last year she said that what she meant was, âI recognized the surroundings of that photograph, nothing more than that.â
âI donât know exactly how many points there are, but there are over 50 problems with the picture. So I donât believe itâs a true picture,â she said.
Lisa Bloom, an attorney representing some of Epsteinâs victims, pushed back against the claim, according to ITV.
âThereâs zero credibility to her claim that the photograph has been doctored. There has been no evidence used in court when her attorneys had the opportunity to do that. Â Itâs easy to make public statements. You can say whatever you want, but the proof comes in at court and no proof came in in court to show that that photo was doctored,â Bloom said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.