Nightmare for Prince Andrew after judge rules unheard evidence from Johanna Sjoberg who royal ‘groped’ can be public

PRINCE Andrew is braced for a New Year nightmare with the release of more evidence from a grope accuser.

Judge Loretta Preska has ruled that material related to Johanna Sjoberg should be unsealed in 14 days.

The order was signed on December 18, meaning they should be made public any time from January 1 onwards unless anyone appeals.

The 40 documents could reveal additional details of Ms Sjoberg’s encounters with Andrew — which have already put him in a very unflattering light.

She has claimed he groped her breasts at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion in March 2001, when she was 21 and he was playing with a Spitting Image puppet of himself — a gift from Epstein’s lover Ghislaine Maxwell.

Ms Sjoberg also appears to support Virginia Giuffre (formerly Roberts) who claimed she had sex with Andrew in 2001 when just 17.

The Duke of York denied those allegations and reached an out-of-court settlement with Ms Roberts.

In a deposition Ms Sjoberg said of her 2001 trip to Epstein: “I just remember someone suggesting a photo and they told us to get on the couch. And so Virginia and Andrew sat on the couch and they put the puppet on her lap.

“And so I sat on Andrew’s lap, I believe of my own volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast and so Andrew put his on mine.”

It was all done in “a joking manner” and “everybody laughed”, Ms Sjoberg said.

The new documents related to Ms Sjoberg — now a 42-year-old hairdresser living near Palm Beach, Florida — are among hundreds of files from 177 people.

They were part of a 2015 US defamation case by Ms Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell.

That case was settled but media sued to have the documents made public.

They have been released on a rolling basis since 2019.

Ms Sjoberg is already identified due to a 2021 story about her that Judge Preska cites as why she should not remain anonymous.

Ms Giuffre sued Andrew in 2021 for battery and infliction of emotional distress.

They settled in February 2022 for a reported £10million though he has always denied any wrongdoing and told the BBC in an interview he never remembered meeting Ms Roberts.

Maxwell, 60, is serving a 20-year jail term for charges including sex trafficking a minor.