More details have emerged involving allegations made against Prince Andrew.
In newly unsealed documents filed in a lawsuit relating to Jeffrey Epstein, the Duke of York is accused of using a hand puppet to grope Virginia Giuffre—who alleges she was forced to have sex with him on three separate occasions—at the home of the late convicted sex offender.
According to court documents obtained by NBC News Jan. 3, Johanna Sjoberg alleged during a 2016 deposition that she saw a then-17-year-old Giuffre with Prince Andrew and Epstein's confidant Ghislaine Maxwell in Epstein's New York mansion.
Sjoberg, who testified that she was a 20-year-old student when Maxwell offered her a job as job as a personal assistant, also stated in the deposition that the royal sat with both her and Giuffre and took a picture with a puppet in his likeness that had its hand on Giuffre's chest, while his other hand was placed on her chest.
The unveiled documents are part of the 2015 civil defamation lawsuit filed by Giuffre against Maxwell, who was accused of recruiting and grooming teenage girls between 1994 and 2004 for Epstein. Both Epstein and Maxwell were charged with multiple federal sex trafficking charges.
E! News has reached out to Prince Andrew and Buckingham Palace for comment and has not heard back. Prince Andrew has previously denied the allegations against him, stating in a 2019 interview with BBC News of Giuffre, "I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever."
The Duke of York was stripped of his military affiliations and remaining royal duties a month before his respective lawsuit with Giuffre, which she filed in August 2021, was settled by both parties in February 2022.
After a jury found the British socialite guilty on five charges in 2021, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019 ahead of his trial.
(E! News and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family).