A woman has alleged that Andrew Moutbatten-Windsor brushed his hand against her chest when she was 17 during a visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in New York in 2010. Caroline Kaufman, now 32, said the encounter took place during a gathering at Epstein’s home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side while the royal was visiting the United States in December that year.
She claimed dozens of young women were gathered in a large room and instructed to wear identical black dresses before Andrew arrived. Kaufman said the atmosphere inside the property felt like a “meat market”, with women positioned in a way that allowed guests to look them over.
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“You could tell Andrew felt like he was a king,” she said. “I just wanted to get out of there. It was creepy.”
Speaking after the release of documents connected to the Epstein investigation, Kaufman said she believed Andrew knew more about what was happening in the house than he has publicly acknowledged, the Sun reported.
“He should be investigated for his links with Epstein as he understood the situation in that house clearly,” she said.
Kaufman said she had originally been invited to the property by a woman she met at an event who told her that her employer might be interested in using her for a modelling photoshoot.
“I thought I was going to Epstein’s mansion for a photoshoot. I thought this was going to be my big break,” she said. “But when I walked in it was clearly a big party and everyone was dressed in black.”
She described the atmosphere as “seedy” and said many of the women present were models.
“There seemed to be as many as 100 girls,” she said. “Everyone was given the same type of dress. We didn’t have a choice in wearing it.”
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According to Kaufman, Andrew entered the room wearing a black tuxedo and began greeting some of the women in attendance.
She alleged that when he approached her his hand “brushed” against her chest and that he asked her age.
“He didn’t say he was Prince Andrew or ask my name,” she said. “He asked my age instead and when I told him I was 17 he seemed to shy away.”
Kaufman said she did not initially recognise the royal but later heard other women discussing his identity.
“It felt like all these girls were there for him to choose from,” she said. “It was almost like a brothel where the girls are lined up and the guy picks who he wants.”
She said she remained at the gathering for about 40 minutes before she was taken upstairs, where she alleges she was raped by Epstein.
The Duke of York has repeatedly and vehemently denied wrongdoing in relation to his friendship with Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Andrew has previously said he travelled to New York in 2010 to personally end his friendship with Epstein after the financier had served a prison sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor. In a 2019 interview with the BBC programme Newsnight he said the purpose of the trip was to “break off” contact.
