The bath in which the Duke of York was accused of sexually attacking a 17-year-old was “too small for a man of Prince Andrew’s size to enjoy a bath in let alone sex”, newly unsealed legal documents claim.

Andrew, 63, settled a civil sexual assault case out of court by paying millions to his accuser Virginia Giuffre in 2022, despite saying he had never met her.

Ms Giuffre, who was sex trafficked by paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, previously said Andrew sexually assaulted her in British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home, telling BBC Panorama in 2019: “There was a bath and it started there and then led into the bedroom.”

She added: “It didn’t last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting. He wasn’t mean or anything but he got up and he said, ‘Thanks’, and walked out.”

The duke has strenuously denied the allegations, which have continued to hit the headlines over the past week because of the release of batches of court papers relating to a 2015 defamation case.

Maxwell’s solicitor Philip Barden said in his 2017 deposition, unsealed on Monday: “She (Ms Giuffre) claimed she did have sex with Prince Andrew and that the sex occurred in what can only be described as a very small bathtub, too small for a man of Prince Andrew’s size to enjoy a bath in let alone sex.”

He said Ms Giuffre’s “story” alleging Andrew had sex with her “caused a feeding frenzy for the press”, and called on the media to “cease and desist” from continuing to publish, saying they faced “higher damages for ignoring my clear warning” if they continued.

Maxwell, who has since been jailed for sex trafficking young girls for Epstein, is also previously said to have argued the tub – reported to be a standard size 5ft 6in by 2ft 4in bath and boxed in on three sides by walls – was too small for sex.

Ms Giuffre told Panorama she went to Tramp nightclub in London with Andrew and he was “the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life” and “his sweat was … raining basically everywhere”.

Andrew claimed in his disastrous Newsnight interview that he had a medical condition in 2001, after suffering an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when he was shot at, that meant he did not sweat.

He said the alleged encounter with Ms Giuffre in 2001 did not happen and he spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.