After several weeks of relative quiet surrounding him, former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was accused on Thursday of committing sex offences in the United States by Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, during a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington.
The remarks came amid renewed calls for the estranged royal to face prosecution.
Calling for those associated with convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to be held accountable, Massie said: "We want the perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted."
Massie, one of the leading figures in efforts to secure the release of the first documents connected to the Epstein case, also named former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley, magician David Copperfield and, of course, the former prince.
"And Prince Andrew, who committed sex offences in the United States," he said, before adding: "Maybe just hearing these names will shame the Department of Justice into acting in the interest of justice."
Massie has become one of the most persistent and outspoken critics of the way the Department of Justice has handled the Epstein case, while also seeking to advance legislation that would require the U.S. government to release additional documents that have not yet been made public.
Since the scandal first erupted, Andrew has strongly denied committing any sexual offences.
Despite those denials, one of the names most closely associated with the Epstein case in connection with Andrew is Virginia Giuffre.
She said that, at the age of sixteen, she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell, who offered her work as a masseuse for Epstein, and that from there she entered a world of exploitation and sex trafficking.
Years later, Giuffre said that Andrew was among the men to whom she was sent, alleging that he had sex with her on three occasions in 2001, when she was seventeen.
Giuffre continued to press her claims and became one of the most prominent voices seeking to expose Epstein's network.
She sued Epstein and Maxwell, and later Andrew as well, filing a civil lawsuit against the prince in the United States in 2021.
In February 2022, Andrew and Giuffre reached an out-of-court settlement.
Andrew did not admit liability but agreed to make a substantial donation to Giuffre's organisation.
The precise value of the settlement was never officially disclosed.
In April 2025, Giuffre died by suicide at her home in Australia.
She was forty-one.
