A new witness in the Jeffrey Esptein case has emerged claiming, as cited by The Sun, that she saw Prince Andrew with the billionaire financier’s alleged victim Virginia Giuffre at a nightclub.
Shukri Walker’s claims essentially contradict the Duke of York’s insistence that he was not there on the night in question.
"I remember him dancing and chatting with the young girl", Walker recalled the night at the club Tramp.
Shukri said she was sure it was Prince Andrew in the club sitting in the company of other people in the corner of the premises, as she happened to accidentally step on his foot at some point, and when she turned to apologise, she found herself facing the prince.
He said with a smile on his face: "No problem", Walker went on, adding that her own male companion confirmed to her that it was "actually Prince Andrew".
"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'", she recounted. According to Walker, the prince was smiling a lot, "most of the night", looking "like he was having a great time".
She reiterated that he was with a young girl "who was close to my own age, perhaps even a bit younger than me", adding the company also included "the woman who has just been arrested, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Epstein".
Speaking about the expression on the said young lady's face, Somalian-born Walker, who said she had been sex-trafficked in her teen years from Kenya to Italy and then London, insisted the girl had something "opposite of smiles' on her face, an "awkward expression", she recalled.
A lawyer for Epstein's accusers, Lisa Bloom, said a second woman had been in touch claiming to have seen Andrew and Virginia together in the club on that evening. She said she had several phone conversations with the witness, who was too frightened to enter the limelight.
Bloom said she hopes Shukri's story will exert further pressure on Andrew to speak to US prosecutors.
"Absolutely they should investigate him", she said.
Epstein's most well-known accuser, Virginia Giuffre said she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York at Maxwell's London house, with the now detained alleged "pimp" continuously reiterating to her how powerful Epstein and his circle was.
Giuffre says a picture of Andrew with his arm around her was taken at Maxwell’s place on that same night, although Andrew said he has no recollection of meeting Virginia and suggested the photo could have been faked.
Maxwell is currently in jail in New York awaiting trial. Epstein's suspected "madam" faces six different federal charges, including personal involvement in sexual abuse and perjury for her denials of facilitating Epstein's sex trafficking, which could put her behind bars for up to 35 years if she is found guilty. She has to date pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Major court proceedings in the "Epstein pimp" case are slated for next July.
