Hundreds more associates of Jeffrey Epstein could be linked to the sex slave scandal surrounding the late tycoon, a court heard on Wednesday.
Their names are among almost 10,000 pages of court documents that could become public.
Lawyers acting for British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and a man known only as ‘John Doe’ tried to block the release of the papers in New York yesterday.
Miss Maxwell’s attorney, Jeffrey Pagliuca, said the files contained an address book with around 1,000 names. Legal sources told the Mail the documents have further damaging revelations about Prince Andrew’s association with Epstein. Details about the Duke of York’s visits to the paedophile’s homes could emerge if the files are released.
Lawyers acting for Virginia Roberts, who was abused by Epstein for three years and who claims she had sex with Andrew, called for the files to be made public by a Manhattan federal court yesterday.
Attorney Sigrid McCawley said that only social security numbers, names of underage victims and personal medical information should be kept secret.
The files follow the 2,000 pages of documents released on August 9. The next day, Epstein committed suicide in his New York jail cell at the age of 66 – a month after he was arrested on child sex-trafficking charges.
Yesterday’s court hearing stemmed from a defamation lawsuit filed against Miss Maxwell by Miss Roberts, a 36-year-old married mother of three now called Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
She claimed the 57-year-old, who is the daughter of tycoon Robert Maxwell, recruited her for Epstein and participated in the sexual abuse, then defamed her by calling her a liar.
Mr Pagliuca, who is paid around £800 an hour to represent Miss Maxwell, said many of the documents should not be released because they were entered as evidence after his client settled the defamation case.
District judge Loretta Preska adjourned the hearing for five weeks. She said hundreds of names were in the papers.
Yesterday’s session came after an appeals court ordered the release of ‘all documents for which the presumption of public access outweighs any countervailing privacy interests’.
Miss Maxwell denies any wrongdoing. Her spokesman said: ‘The allegations made against Ghislaine are untrue.’
Prince Andrew has denied ‘any form of sexual contact or relationship’ with Miss Roberts.