Ex-butler of Jeffrey Epstein believes Prince Andrew 'maybe has something to hide'

The former butler of Jeffrey Epstein believes Prince Andrew “maybe has something to hide” after the royal’s alleged refusal to speak to the FBI about his late paedophile pal.

Breaking his decades-long silence, 70-year-old Juan Alessi today implores the Duke of York to speak to US investigators after secretly meeting with teenage sex slave Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was loaned out the Prince.

In his first-ever interview, he talks candidly about the time – of which he has sworn on oath – around 19 years ago that Andrew attended naked pool parties at Epstein’s Florida “House of Sin”.

Juan even alleges he set up tables for the Prince to be massaged on.

The account puts further pressure on the Duke, who is thought to have so far refused to co-operate with an ongoing FBI investigation into the billionaire.

Epstein, 66, committed suicide last August while awaiting trial for underage sex trafficking while Andrew had to quit public duties over their friendship.

Mr Alessi began working for the Wall Street financier in 1991 and when his American boss was first arrested for underage abuse in May 2006, he was interviewed at length by investigators.

He has been questioned by the police, FBI and victims’ lawyers about Epstein, as well as Andrew’s visits to the billionaire’s £7million Palm Beach home in Florida.

Mr Alessi said: “I am an American citizen and I will do anything to help bring America justice.”

He believes the Duke, 60, should speak to investigators, including the FBI, adding: “He should. Maybe he has something to hide. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened beyond that.”

No one outside Epstein’s circle of abuse saw as much as Mr Alessi.

He swore on oath in 2009 in a civil case brought by “Jane Doe 2” against Epstein and again in a sworn affidavit in 2016 in Giuffre’s civil case for defamation against Ghislaine Maxwell that Prince Andrew was among regular guests.

He told how he set up massage tables for Andrew each day during an extended stay the Duke had in the early noughties at the paedophile’s waterfront home.

In November 2005, he gave a sworn statement to Palm Beach Police in the criminal investigation into Epstein. In it, he said the Prince “spent weeks with us” and slept in “the blue room” – the main guest bedroom.

Mr Alessi added that Andrew would have “daily massages”, saying: “We set up the tables.”

He said the house was “full” of nude pictures of young women: “You would need to be blind not to see them. Pictures of young girls, objects and ornaments were all over the house.”

He previously recalled seeing naked girls by the pool during Andrew’s stay – but he insisted they put clothes on before entering the house.

Mr Alessi told the Mirror he remembers Andrew well but never witnessed him taking part in any of the sexual impropriety claimed by two women against the royal, which he vehemently denies.

Mr Alessi said: “I met Prince Andrew twice at the house. He was a complete gentleman to me.

He was a nice guy. I never see him with girls. I never see him with Virginia. I never saw him naked or actually having the massage.

“If he had a massage, like I say in my deposition, everything was upstairs behind closed doors. I never saw him kissing anybody or patting anybody.

“He was the only person who ever left my wife and I a tip when he left. It was 140 bucks. It was so nice – Epstein did not allow anybody to tip us”

Mr Alessi, who has not been paid and did not ask for money for his interview, said the confidentiality agreement he signed when he quit died when his former employer did.

He opened up about his 11 years with Epstein and his former girlfriend Maxwell.

He said the British socialite, now 58, made him drive as she trawled the streets of Palm Beach looking for young girls to massage Epstein.

Describing the daughter of shamed media tycoon Robert Maxwell as “the devil” he said: “She absolutely knew what Epstein was doing.” In a 2017 lawsuit Maxwell, also a pal of the Duke, was called the “highest-ranking employee” of Epstein’s alleged trafficking enterprise and is alleged in court of acting as his “madam”.

One alleged victim said she showed her “the proper way” to give Epstein oral sex and Maxwell offered her a “step-by-step” lesson, court files say.

She has also been accused of taking part in alleged abuse, including group sex with Epstein and Giuffre, but she has always denied any wrongdoing.

One of Mr Alessi’s tasks was to clean sex toys used by Epstein and Maxwell. “I’d find sex toys in her sink. I took it as a perversion, not an abuse,” he said. “I used to put my gloves on and pick it up and wash it. She had a bathroom. The toys would be in there.

“The FBI needs to talk to Ghislaine. She knows more than anyone. Whole days she spent recruiting girls. I was driving. I wish I had known what for. I would stop at a massage parlour.

"She would go in, take business cards. One time she had me drive to Donald Trump ’s home Mar-A-Lago looking for girls, and that is when she found Virginia.”

He said he had to pay Virginia and other girls: “I used to go to the bank, withdraw $10,000. I’d pay them out of petty cash and fill out a receipt. I wish I’d known what they were really being paid for. He swore them to secrecy, threatened them if they ever told.”

Mr Alessi revealed he was secretly visited by Virginia several months ago and they had a tearful reunion.

He said: “She told me ‘John, they abused me the first night.’ I said ‘Virginia why didn’t you come down and yell? I would have gone that moment to the police’. She was such an innocent little girl when we first met.

“She told me many things. I believe her. She was too frightened to speak at the time. As far as I know, she was having a massage. I am a father. I would have punched the s*** out of this guy.”

Mr Alessi said he once “challenged” the pervert: “I said ‘Jeffrey, you have to take it easy on these girls. One of them is going to get you in trouble’. He just replied ‘they only want money’.”

Mr Alessi broke his silence to end his “nightmare”. He said: “It was a relief when he died because he was a danger. He was a coward. He could not confront what was coming. I was afraid of him. Ghislaine should face justice. I hope they get her.

“I hope Prince Andrew, as a father himself, does the right thing too.”

This week a Netflix documentary alleged Andrew groped Giuffre before “grinding” himself against her on Epstein’s Caribbean isle. A witness claims he saw Andrew kiss the then 17-year-old and grab her bottom.

Prince Andrew has strongly denied any wrongdoing and maintains he cannot recall ever meeting Giuffre.

Tonight a spokesperson for the Duke declined to comment.

A friend of the Prince told the Mirror: “None of us who know the Duke will be surprised by what the butler has said about him: a polite, decent, generous man. Or that he enjoys a daily massage: who wouldn’t?

"Once again, the only thing he’s accused of is a poor choice of one associate, and only then with the benefit of hindsight.

"There’s simply nothing more to it than that. I think people are beginning to understand there’s an unfairness going on here.”