The Prince Andrew sexual assault case currently underway has a new development as prosecutors are opening a 2009 settlement between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffery Epstein in court as evidence in the case.
The civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew made by Giuffre states that the Prince assaulted her when she was under the age of 18, and was part of the many children Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell were sex-trafficking. A New York federal court has already found Maxwell guilty of five out of the six charges she was facing. She could go for up to 65 years in prison for her sentence. The 60-year-old is guilty of recruiting and grooming several underage girls for Epstein and herself to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Prince Andrew however denies all accusations of ever being involved in any such activities, accusing the victim to be looking for a “payday” against not only himself but also Epstein and his associates. The civil case against the prince is still in its early stages, with a trial to begin around September to December of 2022 if a settlement has not been reached until then. There is, however, a hearing on Tuesday morning on behalf of Prince Andrew’s appeal to dismiss the case.
The exact accusation made by Giuffre states that Prince Andrew abused her thrice when she was under the age of 18, as part of Epstein’s sex trafficking in which he not only abused girls himself but also lent them out to other powerful men, many of them his then friends and associates. Giuffre’s ex-boyfriend Anthony Figueroa has backed her accusation against the Duke saying, “I remember the first time Virginia mentioned him in 2001. She knew she’d be meeting him and said she knew what they wanted her to do with him and she didn’t want to do it. She said she was scared and nervous. I told her she had to do whatever it took to feel safe.”
Due to this ongoing trial, Julian Perreira, a former lance sergeant in the Grenadier Guards has become the first individual to ask the Duke of York to step down from the army. According to him, the Prince’s “involvement” in the case will “stain” the regiment’s reputation and history. The position has been held by Prince Andrew since 2017, taken from his father the Duke of Edinburgh.
