London, 4 January 2024 (PA Media/dpa/MIA) - Paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein was ready to reward one of his victim's friends if they could "prove her allegations false" - including that Professor Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy, court documents have revealed.

The names of more than 170 people who were either associates, friends or victims of Epstein are set to be made public following a US judge's order last month.

The first tranche of documents was released on Wednesday evening with high-profile figures such as the Duke of York and former US President Bill Clinton featuring heavily.

An email from Epstein to disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell showed he was content for her to "issue a reward" to any of Virginia Giuffre's friends to counter her claims, shortly after she filed a civil claim in the US in 2015.

The email 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."

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.

In one document, a woman named Johanna Sjoberg claimed Prince Andrew touched her breast while sitting on a couch inside the US billionaire's Manhattan apartment in 2001, while giving testimony in May 2016.

Buckingham Palace previously said the allegations are "categorically untrue."

The documents are part of a 2015 US defamation case by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced British socialite who supplied Epstein with underage girls.

In Ms Sjoberg's interview under oath, which is called a deposition in the US, she also said Epstein had told her former President Bill Clinton "likes them young, referring to girls."

In other documents, Maxwell could be seen sending an email in January 2015, shortly after a civil claim had been filed against her, in which she described herself as "out of my depth."

She added: "I have already suffered such a terrible and painful loss over the last few days that I can't even see what life after press hell even looks like - statements that don't address all just lead to more questions... what is my relationship to Clinton? Andrew on and on."

The court documents show that during Maxwell's videotaped deposition in 2016, she claimed she could only recall the duke on Epstein's island once.

Asked whether any girls under the age of 18 were present on that one occasion, she replied: "There were no girls on the island at all.

"No girls, no women, other than the staff who work at the house.

"Girls meaning, I assume you are asking underage, but there was nobody female outside of the cooks and the cleaners."

Andrew stepped down from public life after the furore over his friendship with Epstein and paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case to Ms Giuffre, a woman he claimed never to have met.

The duke was cast out of the working monarchy and no longer uses his HRH style after Ms Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

He strenuously denies all allegations.

Photo: EPA