Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre sues Prince Andrew
Giuffre accuses Andrew of sexual abuse at Epstein’s
mansion when she was under 18
Virginia
Giuffre
Virginia
Giuffre filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in federal court in New York.
Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
Joanna
Walters in New York and agencies
@Joannawalters13
Tue 10 Aug
2021 00.15 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/09/virginia-giuffre-sues-prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein
Virginia
Roberts Giuffre, an alleged victim of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, on
Monday filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in federal court in New York.
She accused
the British royal of sexually abusing her at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan and
at other locations in 2001 when she was under the age of 18, according to court
records. Prince Andrew has denied having sex with her.
“If she
doesn’t do it now, she would be allowing him to escape any accountability for
his actions,” Giuffre’s attorney, David Boies, told ABC News, the US news
network reported.
He added:
“And Virginia is committed to trying to avoid situations where rich and
powerful people escape any accountability for their actions.”
The lawsuit
seeks unspecified damages. Giuffre accuses Andrew of sexual assault and
intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“Twenty
years ago, Prince Andrew’s wealth, power, position, and connections enabled him
to abuse a frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her. It is
long past the time for him to be held to account,” according to the lawsuit.
In late
2019, Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight that he never had sex with Giuffre,
saying: “It didn’t happen.”
He said he
has “no recollection” of ever meeting her and told an interviewer there are “a
number of things that are wrong” about Giuffre’s account, which alleges the
encounter occurred in 2001.
“I can
absolutely categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said. According to
the lawsuit, the prince abused Giuffre on multiple occasions when she was under
the age of 18.
It said
that on one occasion, the prince sexually abused her in London at the home of
Ghislaine Maxwell, when Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew forced her to have
sexual intercourse with the prince against her will.
On another
occasion, Prince Andrew sexually abused the plaintiff in Epstein’s New York
mansion, the lawsuit said.
ABC
reported that a spokesperson in Britain for Prince Andrew told the company
there would be no comment on the lawsuit.
Monday’s
lawsuit was filed shortly before a New York state law expires that allows
people alleging they were sexually abused as children to sue despite the
potential block that might be imposed by statutes of limitations otherwise, ABC
noted.
Giuffre has
previously alleged that the late Epstein, who died in August 2019 awaiting
trial in New York on federal child sex trafficking offenses, flew her to New
York when she was 17 to have sex with Prince Andrew – something that the prince
has repeatedly and vehemently denied.
Epstein’s
one-time girlfriend and business companion, the British socialite Ghislaine
Maxwell, is in jail in New York awaiting trial accused of procuring underage
girls for Epstein. He had previously been convicted of child sex offenses in
Florida and was arrested in New Jersey in July 2019 and brought to New York to
face fresh charges. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty.
Giuffre
gave the following statement to ABC News: “I am holding Prince Andrew
accountable for what he did to me. The powerful and the rich are not exempt
from being held responsible for their actions. I hope that other victims will
see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but one can reclaim
her life by speaking out and demanding justice.”
The
statement continued: “I did not come to this decision lightly. As a mother and
a wife, my family comes first. I know that this action will subject me to
further attacks by Prince Andrew and his surrogates. But I knew that if I did
not pursue this action, I would be letting them and victims everywhere down.”
Prince
Andrew was named in a 2015 court filing by an alleged victim of Epstein, who
was not then named but has since come forward to identify herself as Giuffre,
in a civil case brought by women who say they were exploited by Epstein, a
multimillionaire who was convicted in Florida of soliciting sex with an
underage girl after a controversial plea deal with prosecutors.
She claimed
she was forced to have sex with Andrew in London, New York and on Epstein’s
private Caribbean island.
The
allegations have prompted a series of denials on behalf of and by the prince of
any impropriety with underage girls, including that he had sex with an underage
Giuffre.
Giuffre is
now 38 and lives in Australia. Her court filing on Monday was brought under the
Child Victims Act, she said, to allege she was trafficked to Prince Andrew and
sexually abused by him.
Giuffre
said she “feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other
repercussions for disobeying” Epstein, Maxwell and the prince because of their
“powerful connections, wealth, and authority,” the lawsuit stated, while also
adding that Andrew had known her age at the time.
prince andrew
‘Prince
Andrew has been made the subject of a US lawsuit, a civil case brought by
Virginia Roberts Giuffre.’ Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images
Of course Prince Andrew isn’t sweating over this
lawsuit – he can’t
Marina Hyde
The Duke of York is the subject of a US civil suit
brought by Virginia Giuffre, who alleges she was abused while a minor
Tue 10 Aug
2021 15.40 BST
“I could
have worse tags than ‘Air Miles Andy’”, Prince Andrew once remarked, “although
I don’t know what they are.” Yeah, well … SPOILERS. I’m not sure if the Duke of
York would have better luck if he considered the question again today, in light
of Various Events of the past few years. His infamous Newsnight interview
revealed him to be a man of such baroque stupidity that in some ways its most
sensational revelation was that Prince Edward must have been the clever one.
And so to
events overnight in New York. For the first time, the Queen’s second son has
been made the subject of a US lawsuit, a civil case brought by Virginia
Giuffre, formerly Roberts, teenage victim of Andrew’s former close friend, the
late underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre alleges that the Queen’s
second son sexually abused her when she was a minor on three occasions – in
London, in New York, and in the US Virgin Islands. Quite a lot of air miles,
there, though I fear we can rule out HRH cashing them in for a free flight to
the US any time soon. The prince has not commented on the case but he has
always denied the claims saying they’re false and without foundation.
He won’t be
sweating even now, of course – as Andrew famously explained, he is biologically
incapable of perspiration because he OD’d on adrenaline in the Falklands. And
you know, no matter how many times I type that, I always need to take a moment
to get my eyebrows down off the roof.
Anyway,
this latest development may well represent Giuffre’s last available option for
personal agency in pursuit of justice for her claims. Otherwise, she can only
await the glacial creep of the various investigations into the now-dead Epstein
and his associates, including the financier’s alleged procurer Ghislaine
Maxwell, who is herself awaiting trial in the US.
Alas,
accounts differ as to the level of the prince’s assistance with any of these
various inquiries. Last January, the then-New York attorney general, Geoffrey
Berman, declared HRH had offered “zero cooperation” up to that point. According
to Berman, not a lot had changed six months later. “If Prince Andrew is, in
fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our
doors remain open,” he reiterated last summer, “and we await word of when we
should expect him.” Reading that, you might have felt minded to pencil him in
for the 12th of never, but the prince’s legal team countered that he had “on at
least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the
DOJ”. In the suit filed on Monday, the documents state: “Again Prince Andrew
stonewalled - ignoring (the) plaintiff’s letter and emails without any reply or
response, thereby making this action necessary now.”
Let’s move
on, then, to a recap on the three locations referenced in Giuffre’s case. The
Virgin Islands relates to Epstein’s private property in the territory,
apparently known locally – though perhaps not altogether opaquely – as
“Paedophile Island”. On the New York allegation, Prince Andrew has already
asserted that he couldn’t have had “activity” with Giuffre at Epstein’s
Manhattan address that night as he was staying with the then British consul
general in New York, Sir Thomas Harris. Or as Harris put it: “It doesn’t sound
like he stayed with me,” adding that he had “no recollection” of the claimed
royal visit, and it had not appeared in the Court Circular as would be
convention. The London allegation arguably comes with the most helpful aide
memoire for the prince, what with the existence of a photo of Andrew with his
hand resting on the bare hip of Giuffre in an upstairs room of Ghislaine
Maxwell’s home. Maxwell herself is smirking in the background of the picture,
allegedly taken after a visit by her, the prince, and Epstein to Tramp
nightclub.
All sorts
of claims have been made about this photograph and what it shows. Placing those
allegations and denials to one side for a moment, let’s just focus on what we
can see, and ask ourselves a basic question. Namely: what are three big-hitters
in their 40s doing hanging round late at night with a 17-year-old runaway? Is
this the behaviour of non-weirdos? Not really, let’s face it. Virginia Roberts
wasn’t a whole lot older than Andrew’s eldest daughter at the time, which
perhaps ought to have crystallised his thinking. Far better to take her to
Pizza Express than to run the gauntlet of the aged slimeballs at Tramp.
Nor was it
the behaviour of a non-weirdo to continue to hang out with a Tier 1 sex
offender AFTER he had been to prison for procuring an underage girl for
prostitution, as the Duke of York undeniably did in the case of Epstein. And
let’s not forget it wasn’t just one girl, in some kind of he-said, she-said
situation. As the Palm Beach police chief who ran the case summarised: “This
was 50-something ‘shes’ and one ‘he’ – and the shes all basically told the same
story.”
As for
what’s next for Andy, I wouldn’t pin hopes on him being a blockbuster Tower of
London exhibit for autumn. It was almost exactly two years ago that the fallout
of his Epstein friendship hotted up for him again, and back then the prince
headed straight to join the Queen’s summer retreat to Balmoral, where he was
accompanied by his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Andrew was even prominently
displayed in the prime seat next to his mother in the car on the way to the
local church. He and Fergie then private-jetted off for a second time to
Sotogrande – though oddly some random private plane Meghan and Harry had
recently taken was deemed of far more febrile and condemnatory interest to most
of Fleet Street at the time.
You
certainly wouldn’t bet against the same pattern being followed this year.
Prince Andrew and Fergie are already reported to be imminently expected at
Balmoral, suggesting he is not exactly the Banned Old Duke of York. Perhaps we
shall see him with mama again, pursing his lips with the grave satisfaction of
one who knows that Balmoral’s humble kirk does not actually have an extradition
treaty with hades.
In the
immediate wake of the Newsnight interview, a YouGov poll found that a mere 6%
of the UK public believed Prince Andrew to be telling the truth. It does seem
particularly notable that he asserts he was “acting honourably” in flying all
the way to New York in 2010, supposedly to end his friendship with Epstein.
Strangely, he has yet to regard it as a matter of honour to fly to New York to
clear his own name. If he fails to take up this new opportunity to do so in a
court of law, he and his surrogates can hardly complain about being tried in
the court of public opinion.
Marina Hyde
is a Guardian columnist
This
article was amended on 10 August 2021 to refer to the US Virgin Islands, not
British Virgin Islands.
Why is Virginia Giuffre suing Prince Andrew and
what could happen next?
As the alleged victim of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
files a lawsuit in New York, how will taking the action in the US affect the
case?
Haroon
Siddique Legal affairs correspondent
Tue 10 Aug
2021 17.28 BST
On Monday,
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an alleged victim of the sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein, filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in federal court in New York.
What has prompted her to take action now, and what may happen next?
What claims
has Guiffre made?
Giuffre has
accused Andrew of sexually abusing her at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in
Manhattan and at other locations in 2001 when she was 17. Her legal claim
alleges she “was compelled by express or implied threats by Epstein,
[Ghislaine] Maxwell, and/or Prince Andrew to engage in sexual acts with Prince
Andrew, and feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other
repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew due to their
powerful connections, wealth and authority”. It further alleges that the prince
knew she was a sex-trafficking victim and that she has suffered – and continues
to suffer – “significant emotional and psychological distress and harm”.
Andrew has
“absolutely and categorically” denied having sex with Roberts and Buckingham
Palace has called the claims “false and without foundation”. Maxwell, who faces
trial in Manhattan federal court in November, has pleaded not guilty to sex
trafficking charges in Manhattan federal court. Epstein took his own life in
jail in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
Why has she
brought the lawsuit now?
In 2019,
the then-New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York state’s
Child Victims Act, which provided victims whose claims had been time-barred
with a one-year window to commence their action. Because of the pandemic, last
year Cuomo extended the window to 14 August this year, meaning Giuffre had to
file the lawsuit by Saturday. Cuomo has himself been accused of sexually
harassing 11 women, one of whom has recently filed a criminal complaint. Cuomo
has denied any wrongdoing.
Could she
have sued in England?
The
complaint by Giuffre says the action is being taken in New York because the
defendant “sexually abused [the] plaintiff in this state, and has thus
committed a tortious action within this state”. Richard Spafford, partner at
Reed Smith, said: “In theory, she could sue for damages in England but, given
the dates of the alleged offences, it is likely that Prince Andrew would be
able to argue that any claim was time-barred and could not be brought.” As
stated above, a change of law in New York meant the time since the alleged
offence was not an obstacle to lodging a claim there.
What powers
does the court have with respect to Andrew?
Spafford
said: “If the claim progresses, the court will have extensive powers to order
discovery of all relevant material, including phone records and diaries,
private communications, etc (assuming those still exist)”. He could be called
to give oral evidence but cannot be compelled to do so. Ultimately, he can
choose his level of defence – if any – and compliance with court orders,
although it risks negatively affecting his chances in the case and the chances
of the court finding for the claimant. Edward Grange, a partner at Corker
Binning, stressed: “Conduct said to give rise to a civil contempt, would not
constitute an extradition offence.”
Do papers
have to be served on him, and can he strive to avoid this?
Arick
Fudali, a partner at the New York legal firm Bloom, which has represented nine
of Epstein’s victims, said: “I’m sure Prince Andrew is aware of the lawsuit
being filed but nonetheless he actually has to be personally served, which is
not easy to do – not impossible, but it is not easy to do when the opponent is
in another country. There are mechanisms in place where you can get service on
someone in another country, but certainly it’s a difficult task.”
Could the
case go to court? How would it differ from in England?
Often in
civil cases parties reach settlement before the case gets to court – without
the defendant admitting liability – but that seems unlikely in this case, with
the complaint stating that Andrew has refused to explore alternative dispute
resolution approaches. Assuming this does not happen and the case is not
dismissed by the court beforehand, the case will go to a jury trial.
Spafford said
the US and English systems were “generally similar” with the main difference
being each party’s ability to depose opposition witnesses – get them to give
evidence under oath – before trial in the US.
What role
could Ghislaine Maxwell play?
It is likely
that she could be called as a witness, potentially by either side.
Can Andrew
travel to the US?
Spafford
said: “[If he travelled to the US] it would then be more difficult for him to
argue that he is not subject to the jurisdiction of the NY court.”
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