The Daily Telegraph - 29.08.2019

Andrew’s fingers

prove this picture

is a fake, say close

friends of Duke

By Bill Gardner

THE Duke of York’s closest supporters

have insisted that a photograph show-

ing him with a Jeffrey Epstein victim

must have been faked because his fin-

gers are “much chubbier” in real life.

Sources close to the Duke last night

launched an extraordinary fightback

against claims that he had sex with

Virginia Roberts by suggesting he had

been the victim of digital trickery.

“The picture is a fake, and the girl’s

story is a fantasy,” a source told The

Daily Telegraph. It comes after re-

News

By Daily Telegraph Reporter

DEAN SAUNDERS, the former interna-

tional footballer, has been jailed for 10

weeks after claiming he could not per-

form a breathalyser test because of his

asthma.

The 55-year-old, who played for Liv-

erpool, Aston Villa and Wales, was

stopped on suspicion of drink-driving

after he was seen failing to give way at

a roundabout on May 10.

Police officers said the retired striker

was slurring his words and had to prop

himself up against his Audi 8 when he

was pulled over in Chester, Cheshire.

Saunders, now a pundit for talk-

SPORT radio, refused to take a roadside

breath test and failed to give a sample

at Blacon Police Station later that day.

The father-of-three initially main-

tained his innocence and claimed that

his asthma meant he was unable to

blow into the tube of the device. Pros-

ecutors said Saunders did not mention

his health condition during his arrest.

He yesterday admitted failing to

comply with a roadside breath test and

failing to provide a breath sample for

analysis at Chester Magistrates’ Court.

He said he had drunk three pints at

Chester Races and at a hotel before he

was stopped by police.

District Judge Nicholas Sanders

accused Saunders of believing he was

“above the law” because of his football

career. “Throughout these proceed-

ings you have shown yourself to be ar-

rogant, thinking you are someone

whose previous and current role in the

public eye entitles you to be above the

law,” he said. “You very nearly caused a

serious accident.”

Saunders, of Whitegate, near North-

wich, Cheshire, was banned from driv-

ing for 30 months and ordered to pay

£620 court costs. Prosecutors dropped

a charge of dangerous driving.

Former footballer jailed for

refusing to take breath test

Drug dealers diverted from

crime with driving lessons

Judge attacks Instagram for

shielding abuser’s chat logs

By Lizzie Roberts

DRUG dealers are being offered driv-

ing lessons instead of a prison sentence

in a new police scheme which attempts

to end the “revolving door” of reoff-

ending.

The first of its kind to be imple-

mented in the UK, the scheme will

guide young offenders towards educa-

tion and employment, diverting them

away from “serious criminality”.

Call-In, run by Avon and Somerset

Police, is targeted at 16 to 21-year-olds

who have been arrested for drug sup-

ply offences.

The offenders will be offered six to

nine months of training upon arrest in-

stead of facing criminal proceedings,

with sessions on offer such as non-con-

tact boxing, anger management or a

business management course.

Still in its pilot stage, the scheme has

also helped some offenders to take

driving lessons and, “if appropriate”,

English lessons, according to Det Supt

Gary Haskins.

As The Daily Telegraph reported in

June, similar schemes run by Durham,

Cleveland and Avon and Somerset po-

lice forces have previously only been

offered to drug users.

The police told the BBC one person

on the scheme had been removed and

charged with dealing class A drugs. He

will appear in Bristol magistrates’ court

in September. Another was removed

after being found with a weapon.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset

Police said: “If a candidate is arrested

for an offence while on the programme,

or does not engage, the candidate will

be invited in for a review.

“If it appears the young person is not

engaged, then the candidate will be

charged with the original offence and

the new offence if one is suitable.”

The new initiative will also undergo

a “rigorous” review process, including

an independent academic evaluation.

Det Supt Haskins said: “We’re quite

strict around it. We’ve had a good look

at it. This is normally for people that

have made that one mistake and people

we think we can work with. Why not

give them a chance? What is there to

lose? We send them to prison and we’ll

see them again.”

By Mike Wright

Social Media correSpondent

A JUDGE has criticised Instagram for

failing to hand over a paedophile’s chat

logs as he accused the technology giant

of prioritising “misplaced loyalty” over

justice.

Recorder Jonathan Barnes lam-

basted the social network after Domi-

nic Nielen-Groen, 39, groomed a

15-year-old girl on the site via a sex-

chat community called Daddy Dom Lit-

tle Girl (DDLG). The computer engineer

was caught after he drove more than

160 miles from his Wolverhampton

home to meet the girl, who later con-

tacted police.

Speaking about Instagram’s failure

to provide records of the conversations

between the two, Mr Barnes said:

“Sometimes these social media compa-

nies put misplaced loyalty to their cus-

tomers before the administration of

justice.”

The court heard that Nielen-Groen

used the name Papa Bear on the Insta-

gram community, which was “widely

used by paedophiles”, and pestered the

girl with messages. He later drove to

meet her at a play park in Seaton,

Devon, where he hugged her and tried

to force her to suck on a baby’s dummy.

The girl, who cannot be named for

legal reasons, had more than 3,000 fol-

lowers and had sent pictures of her

body in exchange for money.

Exeter Crown Court heard her on-

line activities had a traumatic effect on

her, changing her from a model stu-

dent predicted to get top GCSE grades

to a truant who missed more than half

of her final term at school.

Nielen-Groen was found guilty of

grooming a child with the intention of

committing a sexual offence and jailed

for 18 months.

He was also put on the sex offenders’

register and made the subject of a Sex-

ual Harm Prevention Order.

Instagram blocked all hashtags asso-

ciated with the DDLG community ear-

lier this month following an

investigation by The Daily Telegraph

into how it was being exploited by pae-

dophiles. A spokesman for the com-

pany said: “Keeping young people safe

on our platforms is a top priority”.

wrapped around Ms Roberts’ waist.

His legal team have requested to see

the original image but have been

rebuffed by Ms Roberts’ attorneys, the

source added.

“Yes, the Duke knows what he has

done – absolutely nothing wrong,” the

source said.

“Look at the picture. It has clearly

been faked. Andrew’s fingers appear

quite slender, like a girl’s fingers. They

are also a strange shade of red.

“His real fingers are actually much

chubbier – quite small and chubby.

“A tabloid newspaper paid a lot of

money years ago for a copy of this

photo. But no one has ever seen the

original. Doesn’t that seem strange?

“Sadly, it seems to us, this girl is sim-

ply out to make a name for herself.”

The source also believes the Duke is

far taller in real life than he appears in

the photograph, it is understood. They

pointed to a picture of Ms Roberts

standing next to the model Naomi

Campbell, and more recent images

showing her alongside other alleged

Epstein victims.

“Compare the picture against the

others. The Prince is 1.83m tall,

while Ms Roberts seems to be of below

average height.

“She certainly appears to be much

shorter than Naomi Campbell, who is

apparently 1.77m tall.

“So it’s strange that she and the Duke

appear to be of similar height in the

alleged photo. That doesn’t make a lot

of sense,” the source said.

Ms Roberts appears to be wearing

the same outfit in both photographs,

the source added. “It’s an identical

pink top. Odd, don’t you think?”

The picture is said to have been

taken in 2001 at the London home of

Ghislaine Maxwell, the British heiress

who has been accused of acting as

vate jet belonging to Epstein, who took

his own life in jail a fortnight ago.

All the allegations against the Duke

were struck from the court record in

2015 and he has consistently and em-

phatically denied any sexual contact or

relationship with Ms Roberts.

Last week, he broke his silence to

claim that he never saw Epstein do an-

ything illegal.

In a statement issued through Buck-

ingham Palace he said that “at no stage

during the limited time I spent with

[the disgraced financier] did I see, wit-

ness or suspect any behaviour of the

sort that subsequently led to his arrest

and conviction”.

He admitted however that it was a

“mistake” to visit Epstein in New York

in 2010 after his release from prison

on child sex charges.

The Duke was yesterday pic-

tured playing golf on the Costa

del Sol in Spain.

A spokesman for Ms Roberts

did not respond to requests for

comment.

Epstein’s “madam”. It first emerged in

a Sunday newspaper after apparently

being supplied by Ms Roberts.

The Duke is understood, however,

to have told friends that he has “no rec-

ollection at all” of ever meeting his

accuser.

The source pointed to her claim that

she drank cocktails with the Duke at a

London nightclub, as evidence that her

account is “pure fantasy”.

“He’s teetotal, so how could he

have been drinking cocktails?

“The judge threw these allega-

tions out five years ago, and since

then nothing has changed.”

It comes after weeks of scrutiny

over the Duke’s alleged relationship

with Ms Roberts, and Epstein.

Now aged 36 and living in Aus-

tralia, Ms Roberts has claimed that

she had sex three times with the

Duke when she was 17.

Allegations made in court papers

released in the US also suggested

that the Duke had flown a number

of times with Ms Roberts on a pri-

Dean Saunders, a

former Welsh

international, was

branded ‘arrogant’ by

the judge and also

banned from driving

Epstein women

rally as Maxwell

faces scrutiny

By Harriet Alexander in New York

NEW York prosecutors have given

renewed hope to accusers of Jeffrey

Epstein that justice may yet be served,

sitting down with them amid increas-

ing speculation that the British heiress

Ghislaine Maxwell could still be

charged.

Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney

for the Southern District of New York,

met behind closed doors some of the 16

women who spoke in court on Tues-

day. Mr Berman was “very encourag-

ing”, one of those present at the

meeting told The Daily Telegraph, and

the women were given hope by what

they heard.

Several of the dozens of women to

accuse Epstein of abuse told prosecu-

tors in Tuesday’s hearing that they

were trapped in a web created by both

Epstein and Miss Maxwell, his long-

time companion.

She is alleged in court documents to

have served as a recruiter of vulnerable

girls for Epstein. Miss Maxwell, 56, has

never been charged, and has denied

any wrongdoing. Epstein’s death has

led to increasing speculation that pros-

ecutors will now turn their focus on

her.

Gloria Allred, the high-profile wom-

en’s rights lawyer who is representing

five Epstein accusers – and weighing

up taking on yet more – said she was

impressed by Mr Berman’s words.

“He was encouraging that the inves-

tigation of others who may have been

involved in a conspiracy with Mr

Epstein to sex traffic under-age minors

would continue, despite the fact that

Jeffrey Epstein is deceased,” she told

The Telegraph. Mr Berman, who was

overseeing the charges Epstein faced

when he died on Aug 10, has previously

said that his team’s “investigation of

the conduct charged in the indictment

• which included a conspiracy count –
  remains ongoing”.
  Frank Perrone, a former prosecutor
  in New York and now a partner at pri-
  vate law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Cit-
  ron LLP, said Miss Maxwell could not
  rest easy, despite there being no
  charges filed so far.

‘Look at the

picture. It

has clearly

been faked.

His real

fingers are

actually

much

chubbier

• quite small
  and chubby’

‘He was

encouraging

that the

investigation

of others ...

would

continue’

Virginia Roberts

with Naomi

Campbell, left, and

with the Duke of

York, right. The

height disparity and

the appearance of

the Duke’s fingers,

below left, are

reasons sources

close to the Prince

think the image has

been faked. Below

right, the accuser in

New York this week

VIRGINIA ROBERTS; GAMMA-RAPHO; REUTERS

peated claims by Ms Roberts, now

known as Virginia Roberts Giuffre, that

she was forced by Epstein to have sex

with the Duke when she was only 17.

Earlier this week she declared

outside a New York court hearing that

the Duke “knows exactly what he has

done”. She added: “I hope he comes

clean about it.”

But a source close to the Duke

pointed out various “inconsistencies”

in a notorious picture apparently taken

in 2001 showing him with his arm

The Daily Telegraph Thursday 29 August 2019 *** 9

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