Woman says she was raped by financier at his New York home while Duke of York was staying there

Prince Andrew faced further woes yesterday after lawyers for an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein threatened to serve him with legal papers.

Representatives for Caroline Kaufman say Andrew was visiting Epstein’s home in New York on the night she claims she was raped by the paedophile financier in December 2010.

They want the Duke of York to provide a statement as a potential witness to events in the Upper East Side townhouse during his visit, when he was pictured inside the building.

The civil lawsuit does not accuse the duke of any wrongdoing or allege that he was aware of any attack on Miss Kaufman, who was 17 at the time.

But her lawyer’s comments come just a week after Andrew, 62, was reported to have lobbied the Queen to return his royal duties and ceremonial roles.

Spencer Kuvin, who represents Miss Kaufman, now 28, said he wanted Andrew to give a statement about his visit to the New York townhouse.

He told the Sunday Mirror: ‘We are looking into serving Prince Andrew. We’d get a subpoena issued here in the States which is brought over to England and localised, then we would have to locate him and have him served. He should be a fairly easy target to locate.’

In a claim filed at the Manhattan Federal Court against Epstein’s $630million (£515million) estate, Miss Kaufman said she was invited to his house for a ‘modelling interview’.

However she claims she was then taken to a massage room where she was allegedly raped by Epstein.

The duke has previously denied he witnessed any wrongdoing by Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 while he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

In his notorious Newsnight interview in 2019, Prince Andrew claimed he had travelled to the US to cut ties with Epstein, who had been convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution two years earlier.

The duke said it was wrong of him to have stayed at the house, but denied he had seen young girls there, saying: ‘I never saw them.’

The Queen’s second son was stripped of his official duties earlier this year as he prepared to pay a settlement, reportedly worth £12million, to Virginia Roberts, who had accused him of sexually abusing her when she was 17.

Representatives for Caroline Kaufman want the Duke of York to provide a statement as a potential witness to events in Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse during his visit, when he was pictured inside the building

Prince Andrew had always denied her claims, and said he had no memory of meeting her, but settled a civil case she brought in the US in February.

In a statement issued as the case was settled, he pledged to support the ‘fight against the evils of sex-trafficking, and by supporting its victims’. Miss Kaufman’s lawyer Mr Kuvin said: ‘If Prince Andrew wants to stay true to his word I urge him to provide a statement about what happened the night Caroline was attacked.

‘He should be volunteering, we shouldn’t be looking into serving him to get his deposition.

‘Caroline wants to know what he has to say. She wants all witnesses to come forward.’

A spokesman for the Duke of York declined to comment.