Bill Gardner James Cook

22 January 2020 • 9:30pm

Ghislaine Maxwell’s private emails have been hacked by cyber criminals in a new twist on the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew’s friendship with a convicted paedophile.

The British heiress was targeted after she was publicly accused of procuring young girls for Jeffrey Epstein, legal papers seen by the Telegraph reveal.

The security breach will raise the prospect that emails between Ms Maxwell and prominent individuals including the Duke of York could be made public, or sold to the highest bidder.

There were even suggestions last night that a rogue state may have targeted the 58-year-old in search of incriminating information on powerful people.

Ms Maxwell has barely been seen in public since August, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unsealed allegations that she conspired with Epstein to recruit and groom underage girls.

Her US lawyers are currently battling the release of around 8,600 further documents from the same civil case, said to contain damaging new sex claims about Epstein’s vast network of celebrity friends. Prince Andrew pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell at a wedding in 2000 Prince Andrew pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell at a wedding in 2000 Credit: Stewart Mark /Camera Press

In a legal letter seen by the Telegraph dated December 5, Ms Maxwell’s attorneys say that hackers “breached” her computer after her personal email address was mistakenly included in the first tranche of documents.

“Despite the Second Circuit’s best efforts, it made serious mistakes,” her lawyers state.

“It redacted Ms. Maxwell’s email address (which linked to her own domain name) in one location but not another; shortly afterward hackers breached the host computer.”

In December it was revealed that Ms Maxwell exchanged emails with Prince Andrew in 2015 about Virginia Giuffre, who accuses the Duke of having sex with her three times when she was aged 17. He has always emphatically denied the allegations.

A spokesman for Ms Maxwell would not reveal last night whether her personal emails had been accessed or stolen, or if the culprits had yet been identified.

It appears from her email address, which the Telegraph is choosing not to publish, that Ms Maxwell had set up her own secret mail server rather than entrusting her messages to major providers like Google or Yahoo. The server appears to have been run through a New York-based website registered under the name Jennifer Turner, an apparent pseudonym.

Running a personal server can offer added legal protection against handover requests from law enforcement, but it can also leave emails more vulnerable to hackers.

In 2016 it was revealed that the Duke of York was also routing his emails through a private server based in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire. Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell and their accuser Virginia Giuffre pose for a notorious photograph said to have been taken at Maxwell's London home in 2001 Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell and their accuser Virginia Giuffre pose for a notorious photograph said to have been taken at Maxwell's London home in 2001 Credit: AKGS /Capital Pictures

A US judge will decide in the coming weeks whether to unseal the new evidence about Epstein’s alleged crimes. The documents include depositions from 29 people, including a number of new witnesses and reportedly Epstein himself.

Hundreds of people named in the new documents will be formally notified in two weeks’ time to give them a chance to respond to the allegations. The Duke of York’s name appears in the evidence along with a number of prominent politicians and businessmen, it is understood.

Last year it was reported that Prince Andrew had begged Ms Maxwell to clear his name by publicly defending him, but she refused.

As a result, the Duke went ahead with a disastrous BBC television interview that resulted in his effective sacking from public duties.