Annette Witheridge followed the former prince to the convicted paedophile’s front door at his luxurious Manhattan mansion, as she opened up on what happened that fateful day
Annette Witheridge is the journalist who captured the now-infamous photo of disgraced ex-prince Andrew and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein walking in New York’s Central Park. Annette Witheridge has now explained that her picture is responsible for everything happening to the ex-royal.
Andrew currently remains under police investigation over his connections with Jeffrey Epstein after several more images of the pair were found as part of the Epstein files drop last month. Andrew was arrested by police last Thursday (February 19) on suspicion of misconduct whilst in public office.
But British reporter Annette revealed that after she caught a snap of the disgraced financier with the then-prince, Andrew may never have been implicated until just now. Ordinary Andy has not publicly commented on the Epstein files, but previously strenuously denied all allegations made against him.
Speaking to the Mirror, Annette recalled the moment she saw the pair together walking through Central Park in December 2010. This was reportedly the trip where Andrew had claimed to “cut ties” with Epstein after he was convicted of child sex offences.
“I was there. I saw them leave Epstein’s New York home together and walk together to Central Park, where the picture was taken,” she explained. “If we hadn’t got that picture, there would have been no Epstein/Andrew connection, because Andrew would have carried on denying it and we couldn’t have proved it. Now it is literally THE picture.”
She continued: “History was made. It was the start of a whole house of cards that led to where we are now with Andrew. But I must admit when we snapped the pair, I didn’t know the magnitude at the time.”
After following a tip-off that Andrew was in New York, Annette — and photographer Jae Donnelly — tracked the pair down to Central Park, before eventually following the group back to Epstein’s home. She saw the likes of Woody Allen and his wife going into the house and staked out the building for two hours before Epstein and Andrew emerged.
“Andrew was much greyer than I thought he would be,” she recalled as she got into her car and followed the pair around. After being out for around 20 minutes, the pair went back home, but Annette said she had no idea just how important that photo would be to incriminate the ex-prince.
Now, Annette is appealing to Andrew’s security officers at the time to speak out about what they saw at the time as it could help to piece together even more things about what Andrew knew of Epstein’s crimes. She wondered why the officers had not given evidence yet.
“Andrew’s people knew we were out there, so did Epstein’s,” Annette said. “I understand the Royal Protection Squad and why they didn’t say anything to Andrew.
“These guys, these seasoned police officers, you think they’ve seen it all. But there were so many girls who were of a grey area when it comes to age going in and out of the house.”
She suggested that maybe the guards had daughters of a similar age and were left so horrified at what they saw that they could not bring themselves to even speak to the authorities. However, she also wondered if “they were told to keep quiet”.
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