A fifth and final batch of court documents relating to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been released.

Among the 1,400 pages of records are depositions with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

This last trove shows Epstein refused hundreds of times to answer lawyers’ questions, including about alleged blackmail of famous men.

The documents have been released as part of a lawsuit brought by sex-trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre.

The legal action, filed in 2015, was settled in 2017. Maxwell has since been jailed for 20 years for helping Epstein abuse young girls. She is appealing against her conviction.

The court records contain a transcript of Epstein’s 2016 sworn deposition in which he repeatedly invoked his fifth amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination.

The attorney asked whether this was intended to be used as “blackmail material”.

Epstein refused to answer any of the questions, repeatedly responding by saying just the word “fifth” over 500 times.

He refused even to say whether he knew Maxwell.

The Duke of York has previously told the BBC he had no memory of ever meeting Ms Giuffre, who alleged she was told to have sex with him on several occasions.

In 2022, he paid her an undisclosed sum to settle her sex-assault lawsuit against him, but did so with no admission of wrongdoing or liability.

She testified she had been paid $160,000 by a media organisation for two articles and a photo showing her with Prince Andrew.

Ms Giuffre also denied ever having been sex-trafficked to any “presidents”, but maintained she was made to have sex with “a well-known prime minister”.

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