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Alleged Ghislaine Maxwell Victim Set Up Tom Parker Bowles in Newspaper Cocaine Sting
Woman helped tabloid to entrap the son of Duchess of Cornwall by secretly filming him offering to buy drugs,
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Born 17 July 1947, married Brigadier Andrew Henry Parker Bowles, now is the wife of Prince Charles
AP 20 NOV 2021
Tom Parker Bowles, pictured in 1999, the year in which the undercover operation took place – Richard Young/Shutterstock
The disclosure about the sting involving Tom Parker Bowles comes more than a week before Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial for the sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls – Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
One of Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers set up Tom Parker Bowles in a newspaper cocaine sting, The Telegraph can disclose.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, helped tabloid journalists to entrap the son of the Duchess of Cornwall, secretly recording him offering to buy her cocaine. The Telegraph understands the woman was paid as much as Ł40,000 for her part in the undercover operation.
The disclosure comes more than a week ahead of Ms Maxwell’s trial for the sexual abuse and trafficking of underage girls. It is unclear if the background of the accusers, including the woman who helped to set up Mr Parker Bowles, will be raised at trial.
But it may, if introduced, threaten the credibility of the alleged victim over her willingness to betray an acquaintance, who is the stepson of the Prince of Wales.
Another of the four accusers, who also cannot be identified, had previously been arrested for possession of cocaine and use of drug equipment, The Telegraph has been told.
Countdown to the trial
Ghislaine Maxwell denies the six federal charges brought against her – Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Jeffrey Pagliuca, Ms Maxwell’s attorney, told the presiding judge last week that the defence planned to attack the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses and alleged victims, questioning why they did not come forward with allegations against Ms Maxwell until after Epstein’s death, as well as pointing to previous “substance abuse”.
The prosecution of Ms Maxwell, 59, threatens to be one of the trials of the century. The daughter of Robert Maxwell, the disgraced media tycoon, she is accused of grooming young girls for the financier Jeffey Epstein, her one-time boyfriend, who committed suicide while in a New York jail cell in 2019 before he could stand trial.
Ms Maxwell subsequently went into hiding and was arrested by the FBI in a dramatic dawn raid. Epstein had a series of high-profile friends and associates, among them the Duke of York, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
She faces six federal charges that include sex trafficking of a minor, over allegations ranging from 1994 to 1997, and again between 2001 and 2004 of girls as young as 14. She denies the charges, which carry a potential sentence of 80 years in jail, meaning she could die in prison if found guilty.
How the sting unfolded
Mr Parker Bowles, who was 24 at the time, was caught in the newspaper sting offering to supply cocaine to “a society girl”. The woman is one of the accusers relied upon by New York prosecutors in the case against Ms Maxwell.
The sting operation on Mr Parker Bowles caused a furore at the time it was published in 1999, and was splashed across five pages in the News of the World.
The Telegraph has established that the woman was approached by the tabloid because she knew Mr Parker Bowles at the time.
She agreed to assist the newspaper, which secretly recorded Mr Parker Bowles offering to obtain cocaine or other drugs for the woman. He also told her: “I did a line with someone I found last night,” and then offered to get her “gear [cocaine] or weed”.
The interaction took place during the Cannes Film Festival where Mr Parker Bowles was working as a publicist. He declined to comment in the story’s aftermath, but a friend said at the time: “He is very sorry about all this and humbled by it”, while the Prince of Wales is said to have been “fairly cross” but offered him full support.
Mr Parker Bowles, now 46, has gone on to establish himself as one of Britain’s most successful food writers and critics.
Defence plans ‘to impeach alleged victims’
The court case is expected to run for several weeks, meaning Ms Maxwell, whose birthday is on Christmas Day, will turn 60 in a Brooklyn jail where she is being held on remand. Both sides, defence and prosecution, are currently engaged in wrangling over the selection of jurors with the trial itself due to begin on November 29.
At a hearing last week, Mr Pagliuca told Alison Nathan, the judge: “The defence plans to impeach the alleged victims on their failure to disclose any abuse earlier, and will also look at previous substance abuse.”
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers have fought to bar Lisa Rocchio, the US government’s expert witness and a clinical psychologist with expertise in traumatic stress, who explained to the court why some victims delay reporting abuse.
Judge Nathan is set to decide in Tuesday’s final pre-trial hearing whether the defence is allowed to bring up the victims’ past sexual history.
Ms Maxwell, who has been repeatedly denied bail, has complained of horrendous conditions in prison, having spent more than 500 days in custody since her arrest at a secret home she had purchased in New Hampshire in 2020, a year after Epstein’s suicide.
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