Stephen Hawking Epstein Island memes branded 'disgraceful'

Paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein was ready to reward one of his victim’s friends if they could “prove her allegations false” – including that Professor Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy, court documents have revealed.

The names of more than 170 people who were either associates, friends or victims of Epstein are set to be made public following a US judge’s order last month.

The first tranche of documents was released on Wednesday evening with high-profile figures such as the Duke of York and former US President Bill Clinton featuring heavily.

An email from Epstein to disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell showed he was content for her to “issue a reward” to any of Virginia Giuffre’s friends to counter her claims, shortly after she filed a civil claim in the US in 2015.

The email read: “You can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends, acquaints, family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false.

“The strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”

It didn't take long but within hours of the list being released and Hawking's name being found on there for memes mocking the professor to start spreading online, showing little regard for any potential victims or disabled people shown in the images.

One person who was used in a meme was wrestler Matt Cardona, better known as Zack Ryder during his time in WWE. A clip of Cardona being thrown off of a stage while sitting in a wheelchair during a 2012 WWE storyline was used to poke fun at Hawking but Cardona didn't see the funny side, writing on X/Twitter: "Guys...come on,"

Dylan Page, who runs one of the top news accounts on TikTok, also spoke out about the memes who called the jokes 'disgraceful' and said that "people were so wrong for this."

Another person on X/Twitter wrote: "It's nice for people to recreate through memes and s**t jokes about Stephen Hawking, it's definitely not like you guys care about the victims, taking their pain and turning it into some sort of trending meme it's weird."

A second wrote: "None of the Stephen Hawking memes about being on that list are funny. They are about victims, children who have been abused by people with impressive power in the world and you making your stupid jokes."

A third added: "Guys i know stephen hawking being on the epstein list was a shock but can we stop with the ableist jokes please. Not to be a sjw but they are just not that funny."

Professor Hawking, who died in 2018, is one of 170 people named in the documents relating to Epstein who supposedly visited his Caribbean island. Others named include former president Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Donald Trump and Alan Dershowitz.

Hawking was pictured on the island after being invited there by Epstein in 2006 for a conference funded by the disgraced millionaire, just months before Epstein was charged with child sex offenses.Additional reporting by PA.

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