Had sex three times during the years 2000-2002. Virginia was one of the underage girls of Epstein's sex ring. On 30 December 2014 a court filing in Florida by the lawyers Bradley J. Edwards and Paul G. Cassell alleged that Andrew was one of several prominent figures, including lawyer Alan Dershowitz and "a former prime minister", to have participated in sexual activities with a minor later identified as Virginia Giuffre (then known by her maiden name, Virginia Roberts), who was allegedly trafficked by Epstein. An affidavit from Giuffre was included in an earlier lawsuit from 2008 accusing the US Justice Department of violating the Crime Victims' Rights Act during Epstein's first criminal case by not allowing several of his victims to challenge his plea deal; Andrew was otherwise not a party to the lawsuit. In January 2015 there was renewed media and public pressure for Buckingham Palace to explain Andrew's connection with Epstein. Buckingham Palace stated that "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue", and later repeated the denial. Requests from Giuffre's lawyers for a statement from Andrew about the allegations, under oath, were returned unanswered. Giuffre asserted that she had sex with Andrew on three occasions, including a trip to London in 2001 when she was 17, and later in New York and on Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands. She alleged Epstein paid her $15,000 after she had sex with Andrew in London. Flight logs show Andrew and Giuffre were in the places she alleged their meetings took place. Andrew and Giuffre were also photographed together with his arm around her waist, with an Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in the background, though Andrew's supporters have repeatedly said the photo is fake and edited. Giuffre stated that she was pressured to have sex with Andrew and "wouldn't have dared object" as Epstein, through contacts, could have her "killed or abducted". On 7 April 2015 Judge Kenneth Marra ruled that the "sex allegations made against Andrew in court papers filed in Florida must be struck from the public record". Marra made no ruling as to whether claims by Giuffre are true or false, specifically stating that she may later give evidence when the case comes to court. Juan "John" Alessi, who was Epstein's butler, stated in a deposition he filed for Giuffre's 2016 defamation case against Maxwell that Andrew's hitherto unremarked visits to the Epstein house in Palm Beach were more frequent than previously thought. He maintained that Andrew "spent weeks with us" and received "daily massages". Giuffre had said that on the first night she allegedly had sex with Andrew they got into the bath where "he started licking my toes, between my toes, the arches of my feet" before they went into the bedroom and had sex. She repeated this statement in a 2019 BBC interview. She described the bathroom in her unpublished memoir, stating "It was a beige marble tiled floor with a porcelain Victorian-style bathtub in the middle of the room."[196] In January 2023, Ghislaine Maxwell's brother Ian Maxwell disputed Giuffre's account by releasing photos showing his acquaintances sitting in the bathtub where the incident allegedly took place.[196] The photos were originally reserved as a defense for Ghislaine Maxwell's legal team if Giuffre was asked to testify. Ian Maxwell said the photos "show conclusively that the bath is too small for any sort of sex frolicking. There is no 'Victorian bath', as Giuffre had claimed, which is proved both by the attached plan of the bathroom and the photos themselves."