According to reports today, Ghislaine Maxwell has agreed to cooperate with the FBI.
I would have staked my life (and possibly a bit more) on her doing that because the American criminal justice system is based very largely on the principle of threatening defendants with extremely long prison sentences (or even death) but offering them much more lenient sentences (or even freedom) in exchange either for a confession or for information.
Buckingham Palace is said to be on tenterhooks, waiting to find out whether or not Ghislaine confirms Prince Andrew's sexual dalliance with Virginia Roberts, the girl who claims to have been a sex slave but who, in almost the same breath, admits to having been paid absolutely colossal sums of money by Jeffrey Epstein for providing his friends with sexual services.
If Prince Andrew had had the sense he was born with, he would have contacted me (or indeed any other human being with even a smattering of common sense) before his infamous interview and I (or one of those billions of other people) would have told him to confirm the truth of everything Virginia Roberts had said - if she was telling the truth.
He was a single man and she was a single woman above the age of consent in the jurisdictions in which their sexual acts are alleged to have taken place. The sexual actions they allegedly performed were, by Virginia's own admission, performed with her full consent. She confirms that, as far as she was aware, Andrew didn't know that she was paid for her services or that she was under any other obligation to please Jeffrey and/or Ghislaine.
So there we have it: if every single word she says is true, Andrew has done nothing illegal and nothing immoral.
However, if Ghislaine confirms Virginia's story, he's utterly finished and the damage to the royal family will be very significant indeed - and all because he was persuaded to tell a series of totally unnecessary lies.
Lest any BCG reader should suspect, even for a single moment, that I am a fan of Prince Andrew, let me deny that outright.
I am however quite a big fan of justice.
On the subject of justice, we should all bear in mind that what Ghislaine eventually tells the police about Andrew's involvement with Jeffrey and Virginia may or may not be true.
Britain and America do enjoy a special relationship and it is in my view entirely possible - and indeed by no means unlikely - that pressure will be brought to bear on Ghislaine to absolve Andrew from any wrongdoing even though her unedited testimony might be more than enough to damn him to hell.
Donald, after all, does have a soft spot for our sovereign lady, the queen.
And the criminal justice system of every country in the world is, when it chooses to be, as bent as a nine-bob note! 
