Epstein offered to pay for proof that Hawking did not attend an orgy on his island

Jeffrey Epstein told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that she could offer a financial reward to friends of his accuser Virginia Giuffre if they could help prove her allegation that Stephen Hawking had engaged in an underage orgy was false.

- HOLLY EVANS

Newly released court documents reveal that the paedophile financier sent an email in 2015 showing that he was happy to issue a reward to counter her allegations, shortly after Ms Guiffre had filed a civil claim in the US.

The email, sent to disgraced British socialite Maxwell, read: “You can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends, acquaints, family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false. The strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”

The Cambridge professor had previously visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2006 as part of a conference funded by the billionaire, and pictures show him at a barbecue on Little St James. This occurred months before Epstein was first charged with child sex offences, which included procuring a minor for prostitution.

Professor Hawking, who died in 2018 aged 76, is one of more than 170 people who have been named after a US judge ordered that documents relating to Epstein could be made public. The first tranche of documents, in which high-profile figures such as the Duke of York and former US president Bill Clinton featured heavily, was released on Wednesday evening.

Also published among the court documents as part of Ms Giuffre’s civil claim against Maxwell was the transcript of the socialite’s videotaped evidence given under oath. During her interview, known in the US as a deposition, Maxwell claimed she could only recall Prince Andrew visiting Epstein’s island once.