EXCLUSIVE: Inside the house where Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts had ‘sex in the bath’ – as London home, sold by Ghislaine Maxwell six months ago to pay her legal fees, is back on the market for £2.6m
- Ghislaine Maxwell sold her property in London’s Belgravia for £1.75m in July last year to help pay her legal fees to fight charges of trafficking young girls to have sex with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
- It was at the three double-bedroomed mews property where one of Epstein’s victims Virginia Roberts claimed that she had sex with Prince Andrew in 2001 when he was 41 and she was 17
- Roberts, who now goes by her married surname Giuffre, alleged she had sex with the duke in a bath after posing with him next to a grinning Maxwell for a photo on the first floor landing of the property
- In her memoir, she wrote: ‘I turned on the taps for the tub and the heat from the water began to steam up the small room . . . Trying to do the best of my youthfulness to try and act seductive’
- Andrew denies Ms Roberts’ claims along with Maxwell who instructed two of her lawyers to lay in the bath to prove that it was too small for two people to have sex
Ghislaine Maxwell’s former London pied-a-terre, where Prince Andrew allegedly had sex with Virgina Roberts, is on the market less than a year after she sold it to help pay legal fees for her high-profile trial in the US.
Maxwell sold the mews house in London’s Belgravia, just a stone’s throw from Harrods, last April for £1.75 million as she prepared to face charges that she recruited and trafficked young girls to be sexually abused by the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell, 60, was found guilty by a jury last December and faces up to 65 years in prison as she awaits sentencing after fighting the case, which is estimated to have cost her around £7 million.
Her former Belgravia home was purchased by a property development company and is now up for sale for £2.6million, a price which it is likely to fetch given its location in one of London’s most exclusive districts.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s mews house in Belgravia (pictured) is on the market for £2.6m seven months after she sold it for £1.75m
Would be buyers will get the opportunity to bathe in the bathroom (pictured) where Virginia Roberts alleges that she had sex with Prince Andrew in the bath one night in 2001 when she was a 17-year-old trafficking victim of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
Ms Roberts claims that she slept with Prince Andrew at the Belgravia home of Maxwell shortly after this photo was taken of them all together on the first floor landing of the property, which is outside the bathroom
A floor plan of Maxwell’s former home (above) shows where the well-known photo was taken which is central to Ms Giffre’s civil case against Prince Andrew which is due to be held in the US later this year. Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing
The three double bedroom property is said to be where Andrew was photographed with his arm around the bare waist of then 17-year-old Roberts, one of convicted paedophile Epstein’s victims, who is now known by her married name as Virginia Giuffre.
The stylish but simple house has emerged as central to her civil action in the US against Andrew. She alleges she had sex with him in the bathroom of the property, one of three occasions in 2001 she claims that she was forced to have sexual relations with him on the orders of Epstein and Maxwell.
Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he has never even met Ms Roberts, now a 38-year-old mother-of-three living in Australia.
The home (above) is being sold by Wellbelove Quested, based in Knightsbridge, specialising in high end properties
In her memoir, recalling her visit to Maxwell’s Belgravia house, she wrote: ‘I turned on the taps for the tub and the heat from the water began to steam up the small room . . . Trying to do the best of my youthfulness to try and act seductive, I gradually began to strip off my clothing, piece by piece . . . He loved every second of it as I went over to where he was waiting and watching, then began to undress him.’
She also described the bath as being a ‘Victorian-style bathtub in the middle of the room’ which was on a beige marble tiled floor.’
Ms Roberts claimed that after being with Andrew at Tramps nightclub, where he was ‘raining sweat’ over her in March 2001 they returned to Maxwell’s Belgravia home to have sex.
Andrew hit back at the allegations in a BBC Newsnight interview, denying that he was able to sweat because he had an ‘overdose’ of adrenaline in the Falklands war when he was shot at.
He insisted that for him it ‘was almost impossible to sweat.’
Ms Roberts’ lawyers have since asked for medical evidence to prove this as they prepare their civil case against Andrew.
Pictures on property websites where Maxwell’s former home is being advertised show a distinctly different bathroom to the one described by Ms Roberts and it could emerge as key issue in Andrew’s defence.
There is no a free-standing Victorian bathtub in the middle of the second-floor bathroom room, which according to the property’s floor plan, measures 8.2 feet by 7.3 feet.
The property’s historic floorplan taken from a 1987 planning application shows a ‘standard size’ — 5ft 6in by 2ft 4in — alcove bath, boxed in on two sides by walls and on a third by the back of the airing cupboard.
Current images show almost the same layout with an average sized alcove bath on one side, with a sink unit and toilet close by as well as a shower area.
Property website Prime Location describes the house, with this spacious lounge (above) it as a ‘charming mews house’ which requires updating ‘with plenty of potential for an incoming purchaser’
The property, which comes with a shabby chic kitchen (above) was purchased last year by Hampshire-based property developers and financers Stuart Robinson, 52; Emma Jane Robinson, 55 and Amy Robinson
The current owners of the home, which comes with at least one en-suite bathroom (above) stand to make a profit of £850,000 if they achieve the sale price of £2.6million, having purchased it for £1.75million just seven months ago
Insiders revealed that no major renovation work has been carried out to the property since its sale by Maxwell aside from its exterior being painted
Maxwell insisted under oath during a defamation action brought against her by Ms Roberts that ‘the tub is too small for any type of activity whatsoever.’
It was reported that members of Maxwell’s legal team also climbed into the bath together, fully clothed, to test the physical possibility of an assignation such as that described in Ms Roberts’ account.
Epstein also questioned the account of what was alleged to have taken place in the bath, given its size.
In his book Relentless Pursuit, Ms Roberts’ lawyer Brad Edwards wrote that the bath was discussed when he met Epstein in a Starbucks in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2015. The tycoon had contacted him out of the blue.
He claimed that Epstein had said to him: ‘If I could show you how small Ghislaine’s tub was in that apartment, it would be tough for two people to fit in there.’
Maxwell sold the property in July last year before her sex trafficking trial began in the US where she was accused of grooming teenage girls for the paedophile US billionaire financier Epstein (pictured together) to have sex with
Ms Roberts, who is now a 38-year-old married mother-of-three living in Australia (left) , is suing Prince Andrew in the US where she is pursuing him for a civil claim as she alleges having sex with him three times when she was a teenager (right)
Property website Prime Location describes the home it as a ‘charming mews house’ which requires updating ‘with plenty of potential for an incoming purchaser.’
It adds: ‘The property consists of a generous ground floor reception room with kitchen adjoining. Two double bedrooms alongside a family bathroom on the first floor, and the master bedroom with en-suite, dressing area, study and terrace encapsulating the whole 2nd floor.’
Insiders revealed that no major renovation work has been carried out to the property since its sale by Maxwell aside from its exterior being painted.
Maxwell’s former Belgravia home was purchased last year by Hampshire-based property developers and financers Stuart Robinson, 52; Emma Jane Robinson, 55 and Amy Robinson, whose age is not known.
They stand to make a significant profit of £850,000 if they secure the asking price and have been using the property as a London base since purchasing it.
The Robinsons run a property company called Stay Calm Residential Limited in Southampton, which is worth an estimated £20 million and has extensive real estate interests in London and the South East.
Maxwell’s former home is being sold by agents; Wellbelove Quested, which is based in Knightsbridge and specialises in high end properties. The company has been contacted for comment.
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