Father of Epstein ‘sex slave’ calls
on Duke to answer questions
By Nick Allen in Washington
THE Duke of York must answer ques-
tions about allegations that he had sex
with Jeffrey Epstein’s teenage “sex
slave”, the girl’s father said.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleged in
court papers in Florida that she was
forced to have sex with the Duke when
she was 17 – under the age of consent in
the state. Buckingham Palace has vehe-
mently denied the allegations.
But Sky Roberts, her father, put fur-
ther pressure on the Duke yesterday,
telling The Daily Telegraph he believed
the Royal family was complicit in
blocking a full account of what hap-
pened in the Epstein scandal.
Speaking for the first time since a
video emerged of the Duke inside the
paedophile’s mansion in 2010, Mr Rob-
erts, 62, accused the Duke of trying to
distance himself.
The girl’s father, who lives in Florida,
said: “He [the Duke] should answer
questions. It’s been a long time, but
they [the Royal family] are trying to
step away from it – just like everyone
else tried to do.”
Mr Roberts was hired as a mainte-
nance worker at Donald Trump’s Mar-
a-Lago Club in Florida, and got his
daughter a job as an attendant there in- She was then allegedly recruited
into Epstein’s world, and the following
year was photographed with the Duke’s
arm around her.
He said nobody knew “everything
that went on”, but there were “lots of
friends of Epstein. Some of them may
have been good people, some bad”.
Asked if he believed the Royal family
was trying to stop the Duke having to
give evidence in the case, he said:
“Of course, but that’s not for me to say.”
All the allegations about the Duke were
struck from the court record in 2015 af-
ter being described as “immaterial and
impertinent” by a judge. The Duke has
always denied the allegations and any
involvement.
Epstein, a convicted paedophile,
took his own life in a New York jail cell
on Aug 10 while awaiting trial on fur-
ther underage sex trafficking charges.
Up to 20 prison officers at the jail
have received subpoenas as part of an
investigation into why he was not
properly monitored, CNN reported.
It has also emerged that the financier
had taken steps to shield his fortune
from alleged victims who may sue.
A will, signed two days before he
died, and filed in the US Virgin Islands,
put Epstein’s $577 million (£470 mil-
lion) of assets into a trust called the
“1953 Trust”, named after the year of
his birth. Legal experts said prying
open the trust and obtaining damages
could take years.Russian medics ‘not
told’ blast patients
posed radiation risk
By Alec Luhn in MoscowDOCTORS who treated the victims of
an explosion after a military test went
wrong have accused Russian authori-
ties of exposing them to radiation and
forcing them to keep silent.
Staff from the Arkhangelsk regional
hospital were not initially informed
that they were treating irradiated pa-
tients, and protective measures were
not taken until the next day, they told
Russian media.
One doctor was later found to have
the isotope Caesium-137 in his muscle
tissue. He was told he must have eaten
too many “Fukushima crabs” during a
trip to Thailand, his colleague told the
news outlet Meduza.
“We just want not to be contami-
nated and not to die, at least when it
can be avoided easily,” he said. “Not a
word was ever said about this.”
FSB security agents reportedly pres-
sured staff to sign non-disclosure
agreements.
At least five people died and six were
injured after an engine blew up at a
missile-testing site near the town of
Nyonoksa, Arkhangelsk, in an accident
that remains shrouded in secrecy.Missing consulate official ‘held for soliciting’
By Nicola Smith in Hong Kong
A BRITISH consulate official who went
missing in China two weeks ago has
been detained for involvement in pros-
titution, China’s state-backed newspa-
per alleged yesterday.
Simon Cheng, 28, a trade and invest-
ment officer in the consulate’s Scottish
international development section in
Hong Kong, vanished on Aug 8 on the
way back from a business trip to Shenz-
hen, which borders the financial hub.
His Taiwanese girlfriend was the last
to hear from him when he contacted her
to say: “Passing through. Pray for me.”
After Britain expressed “extreme
concern”, China’s foreign ministry
finally broke its silence and confirmed
his detention but gave no details.
The idea that Mr Cheng would have
seen a prostitute was met with wide-
spread derision on Hong Kong’s socialmedia channels with people pointing
out it had only been a day trip.
Yesterday, The Global Times, pub-
lished by the ruling Communist Party’s
official People’s Daily group and often
viewed as a Beijing mouthpiece, said
Mr Cheng had been detained for 15
days for “solicitation of prostitution”.
Police in Shenzhen’s Luohu district
said he had violated a law on adminis-
trative penalties for public security.
The law stipulates that people who
engage in prostitution or visit prosti-
tutes shall be detained no more than 15
days, and may also be fined up to £580.A Foreign Office spokesman said it was
“urgently seeking further informa-
tion”. He said: “Neither we nor Simon’s
family have been able to speak to him
since his detention. That is our priority
and we continue to raise Simon’s case
repeatedly in China, Hong Kong and
London and have sought to make con-
tact with Simon himself.”
Jeromy-Yu Chan, one of Mr Cheng’s
Hong Kong-based friends, said the
charge was a “Communist tactic” from
their “old tricks book”. Mr Cheng, who
grew up in the city but studied in Tai-
wan, Japan and at the London School ofEconomics, was “very nice, righteous
and with good morality”, he said.
It remains unclear where and when
Mr Cheng’s arrest took place but his
detention while travelling on the high-
speed rail link to Shenzhen has revived
fears about the misuse of a controver-
sial immigration arrangement in Hong
Kong’s West Kowloon railway station.
The train linking the two cities only
passes through one immigration point,
based at the station and shared by
China and Hong Kong.
Last year, a widely criticised deal be-
tween China and the city’s authoritiesplaced part of the station under Chi-
nese law, allowing its immigration offi-
cials and police to operate in the heart
of Hong Kong. Critics feared the unu-
sual process set a dangerous precedent
and would be used by China to extend
its control over Hong Kong.
With Hong Kong’s pro-democracy
protests now in their 11th week, the
Chinese authorities have stepped up
checks on travellers going in and out of
Hong Kong and Shenzhen, with re-
ports of officials searching through
mobile phones for messages or photos
that may support the demonstrations.Simon Cheng’s Hong Kong
backers say prostitution
claim is straight out of
Beijing book of dirty tricks
View from ...
Hong Kong
Secondary school
pupils yesterday
joined an anti-
government rally in
Hong Kong, as this
student poses with
a poster illustrating
the violence used
against the ongoing
pro-democracy
movement. A
further student
strike against
China’s continued
interference in
the former British
colony is planned
for next month.1994
The year that an online post started the
now long-running joke that Bielefeld, in
north-western Germany, does not existWorld news
CHRIS MCGRATH/GETTY IMAGES‘Fake’ German city offers €1m
if you can prove it is not real
By Justin Huggler in BerlinA GERMAN city is offering a reward of
€1 million (£900,000) to anyone who
can prove it doesn’t exist. Bielefeld in
north-western Germany launched the
bizarre marketing stunt this week to
mark the 25th anniversary of one of the
country’s longest-running jokes.
The Bielefeld conspiracy theory is
often held up as proof that the Germans
do have a sense of humour after all. The
joke, which originated in an early in-
ternet meme, is that the city doesn’t ex-
ist and that there is a national
conspiracy to pretend that it does.
What makes the joke effective is that
practically everyone in Germany plays
along – including Angela Merkel, who
famously said after a visit to the city:
“So it does exist. Well, at least I had the
impression I was there.”
The people of Bielefeld have not al-
ways taken kindly to being the butt of a
national joke. But now the city has de-
cided to turn the joke on its head.
“We thought the anniversary would
be a nice occasion to put the Bielefeld
conspiracy to bed,” says an announce-
ment on the city’s website. “That’s why
we call on all intellectual overachieversin this country to prove to us that Biele-
feld really does not exist. The prize for
the ultimate proof: €1 million.”
The stunt is the work of the city’s
marketing company, which says it is
99.9 per cent sure no one can come up
with incontrovertible proof. In the un-likely event that someone does manage
to prove the city doesn’t exist, it has as-
sured taxpayers they won’t have to foot
the bill, which will be paid out of the
company’s funds.
The Bielefeld conspiracy theory
originated in a 1994 internet post by
Achim Held, a student who wrote:
“Bielefeld? That just doesn’t exist.”
The joke hinges on the fact Bielefeld,
a city of 330,000 people, lies far from
other urban centres, in an area of
north-western Germany that is eccen-
trically named East Westphalia.‘It’s been a long time, but the
Royal family are trying to
step away from it – just
like everyone else’The Daily Telegraph Friday 23 August 2019 *** 15
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