Hundreds of pages of court documents detailing people linked to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein have been sensationally unsealed on Thursday (AEDT).

Prince Andrew and former US president Bill Clinton are among the names referenced in the papers which were ordered to be released by a US judge.

The pages include the names of more than 150 people mentioned in a lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers.

They were kept under seal for years until a federal judge ruled last month that there was no legal justification to keep them private.

Media outlets are sifting through the papers. Among the claims is an accusation from a woman who says Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001.

The incident has been previously reported and denied by Prince Andrew.

In a 2016 deposition, Epstein accuser Johanna Sjoberg said Prince Andrew put his hand on her breast to pose for a photo with Epstein, Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend.

Sjoberg said the photo also included a puppet that said “Prince Andrew” on it.

CNN reports that Sjoberg recalled Epstein spoke to her about Bill Clinton and had “dealings” with him.

“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” she said.

A Clinton spokesman responded to CNN that the former president had not had contact with Epstein for nearly 20 years.

In 2019, Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena confirmed Clinton had been on Epstein’s plane four times over 2002 and 2003. He had one meeting in Epstein’s Harlem office in 2002 and around that time visited Epstein’s New York apartment.

Prince Andrew has been stripped of most of his royal titles due to his association with Epstein. He settled a civil lawsuit with Giuffre last year for an undisclosed sum and has denied wrongdoing. He was not immediately reachable for comment.

Epstein socialised with Wall Street titans, royalty and celebrities before pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. He took his own life in 2019 aged 66 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Dozens of women have accused Epstein of forcing them to provide sexual services to him and his guests at his private Caribbean island and homes he owned in New York, Florida and New Mexico.

The list stems from a long-settled defamation lawsuit that Giuffre filed against Maxwell.

Maxwell, the daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein. She is appealing her conviction.

Giuffre accused Maxwell of recruiting her when she was underage for Maxwell to abuse.

US Judge Loretta Preska, who is overseeing the case, ruled that some names would remain confidential, including those of people who were underage when Epstein abused them.

-with AAP