Prince Andrew intends to defend himself well. Facing charges of sexual assault he allegedly committed more than 20 years ago, the Briton is asking to be tried in a civil trial in New York, his lawyers announced on Wednesday.
“Prince Andrew hereby demands a trial by jury on all the grounds invoked in the civil complaint” filed in August 2021 in New York by Virginia Giuffre, 38, who accuses the second son of Queen Elizabeth II of the sexually assaulted three times in 2001, when she was a minor. In a court document substantiated and filed this Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Prince Andrew’s lawyers dispute Virginia Guiffre’s accusations point by point.
Quoted in the Epstein case
The latter, born Virginia Roberts and who now resides in Australia, was herself the victim of American financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019, and his British accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, found guilty in December. in New York for the sex trafficking of minors.
Prince Andrew is accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexual assault in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands, residences of the couple of sexual predators Epstein-Maxwell, when she was 17 years old.
The Duke of York, who has just been stripped of his military titles by his mother Elizabeth II and now lives as an outcast, has always “categorically” contested the facts but failed in January to have American justice classify the case without further action. complaint from Virginia Giuffre. Which makes the prospect of a civil trial in New York increasingly likely.