Even a prince would sweat at that kind of grilling. For seven hours over the course of two days, Ghislaine Maxwell was interrogated, probed and prodded over everything from sex toys in a laundry basket to whether Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted paedophile, had ever had sex with a child. On the subject of the Duke of York, Ms Maxwell gave the Queen’s son her backing. The prince famously told Newsnight that allegations he had slept with Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was a teenager were false, not least because he didn’t sweat, but Ms Maxwell came up with a different explanation for why the sex didn’t take place – her bathtub was too small. Ms Maxwell had fought hard to keep the deposition, given in April 2016 in response to a defamation claim brought by Ms Roberts Giuffre, out of the public domain. However, on Thursday, on the orders of a New York judge, all 417 pages were unsealed – most of it unsavoury, often lurid accusations, followed by Ms Maxwell’s ever-angrier denials.
