Jeffrey Epstein: US prosecutors 'officially request Prince Andrew be made available for questioning'

Move comes after New York attorney said Duke of York was not cooperating with probe

US prosecutors have officially requested that Prince Andrew be made available for questioning as a witness in an inquiry into the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to reports.

The Department of Justice is understood to have filed a mutual legal assistance (MLA) request to the Home Office, according to reports by The Sun as well as US broadcasters.

An MLA is a method of seeking assistance from another state in an investigation or prosecution of criminal offences.

The request comes after Prince Andrew said last year that he would be "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required".

However, Geoffrey Berman, who is leading the Epstein probe, told reporters in March that the Duke of York was not willing to cooperate voluntarily with the investigation.

Mr Berman said: "Contrary to Prince Andrew's very public offer to co-operate with our investigation into Epstein's co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary co-operation and our office is considering its options."

The duke was a friend of the disgraced financier and stayed at several of his residences, including the American’s mansion in New York.

Prince Andrew has insisted that he did not witness or suspect any wrongdoing from Epstein, who killed himself in prison while waiting to be tried on sex trafficking charges.

The prince also vehemently denies allegations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, in 2001 after she was trafficked to the UK by Epstein.

She told BBC Panorama she felt “horrified and ashamed” after the alleged sexual encounter.

Ms Giuffre alleges that Andrew had sex with her on three different occasions, including when, aged 17, she was still a minor under US law.

Neither the Home Office nor the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed or denied that an MNA request had been made.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “As a matter of long-standing policy and practice, we neither confirm nor deny the existence of mutual legal assistance requests.”

Similarly, the DOJ told The Independent: “As a matter of policy, the US Department of Justice does not publicly comment on communications with foreign governments on investigative matters, including confirming or denying the very existence of such communications.”

A source close to the duke’s legal team told The Independent: “Legal discussions with the DOJ are subject to strict confidentiality rules, set out in their own guidelines. We have chosen to abide by both the letter and spirit of these rules, which is why we have made no comment about anything related to the DOJ during the course of this year. We believe in playing a straight bat.”

Additional reporting from PA