Can Prince Andrew end up in jail for sexual abuse? The past always comes back
Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University, says that Prince Andrew "may now have to pay significant damages."
Prince Andrés -which they say is the right eye of Elizabeth II- has been removed from public life since the end of 2019. With the confinement due to coronavirus, his absence may have gone more unnoticed, but that does not exempt the seriousness for which it has been forced to live in ostracism. The third son of the sovereign starred in one of the biggest scandals in the history of Buckingham Palace due to his controversial friendship with tycoon Jeffrey Epstein, the influential billionaire who committed suicide in August 2019 in New York prison, where he awaited a trial for child sex trafficking.
At the end of that year, the Duke of York wanted to clean the image of him with an interview with the BBC. But that only drove him deeper into the mud: "When did it seem like a good idea to stay in the home of someone convicted of sex crimes?" "Did he have sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was younger?" The faces of the royal before the questions of the journalist Emily Maitlis were all a poem. It was a bizarre, bland and embarrassing spectacle.
Since then, Andrés - who is now 61 years old - has only been seen publicly in April at the funeral of his father, the Duke of Edinburgh. But the past always comes back. And Buckingham's pillars are now crumbling again after Epstein's alleged victim Virginia Giuffre sued the prince for sexual assault in federal court in New York. The American, now 38, has been narrating the alleged rapes in London, New York and a Caribbean island for years. The son of Isabel II has always said that he does not know her about her and that he has not had relations with her, much less.
A compromised photo
But what changes everything now is that Giuffre has filed a lawsuit accusing the Duke of York of abusing her when she was a minor, under the Child Victims Act of 2019, which allows victims of child sexual abuse to present cases that already have prescribed or expired. What gives credibility to her story is the photograph in which she appears with Andrés in what appears to be a private home. The royal has always defended that she is manipulated and is false. In the image, in the background, you can see Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend of the prince, ex-girlfriend of the pedophile businessman and the alleged person in charge of recruiting the girls in the network of minors.
Maxwell - daughter of the mysterious British newspaper mogul Robert Maxwell - was arrested last summer and her trial begins next November. According to the victims of the pedophile businessman, she keeps all the secrets that Epstein took to the grave, so now everyone is wondering if that information will put the member of the royal family on the ropes. After all, in his disastrous interview with the BBC, the son of Elizabeth II himself explained that Maxwell was a "key element" in her friendship with Epstein. The royal's alleged victim already sued Maxwell for defamation in 2015 after he accused her of lying. They finally reached a settlement out of court.
For its part, the New York prosecution last year accused the brother of the heir to the throne of "zero cooperation" in the case with Maxwell, to the point of sending the UK Home Office a request for mutual legal assistance to force your collaboration.
But the prince's legal team took the unusual step of coming to the fore to ensure that they had offered help up to three times to the US authorities and accuse them of breaking confidentiality rules "to seek publicity."
Scotland Yard has already reported that it will maintain its decision not to investigate the allegations of "trafficking for sexual exploitation" against Epstein, as "it is primarily focused on activities and relationships outside the UK."
Attempt to agree
In short, in Palacio there was already (enough) concern about this whole matter, and now Giuffre's new demand comes to tighten the rope more. The alleged victim's lawyers say that they had tried to negotiate an agreement with the duke out of court, but he did not respond to his calls, so Guiffre has finally decided to go to court to "recover" the life of he.
The news comes after learning that the fund created to try to compensate victims of sexual assault and abuse committed Epstein will terminate its function after disbursing about 121 million dollars (106 million euros) to a total of 150 women . Victims who have decided to accept the money will no longer be able to file any lawsuit against Epstein's estate, but they will be able to share information with authorities and participate in other related parallel investigations, as well as make their stories public.
“I am holding Prince Andrew responsible for what he did to me. The powerful and the rich are not exempt from being held accountable for his actions. I hope that other victims see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, that one can claim his life by speaking up and demanding justice ”, Giuffre assures, through his lawyers, in a statement. “I did not make this decision lightly. As a mother and wife, my family comes first. I know that this action will subject me to further attacks by Prince Andrew. But he knew that if he didn't go through with this, he would be letting them and the victims down, ”he adds. While Giuffre, then 17, was above the legal age of consent in the UK for sexual intercourse, she is considered a minor. And she alleges that the prince knew that she was being coerced and that she belonged to a juvenile ring. “Twenty years ago, Prince Andrew's wealth, power, position and connections allowed him to abuse a scared and vulnerable girl without anyone protecting her. It is time for her to be held accountable, ”the lawsuit states.
Before and after
The truth is that the life of the Duke of York now has nothing to do with what he led two decades ago. He was always the darling of Elizabeth II. He linked controversy with controversy, shady deals and jobs that nobody knew very well what they consisted of. But he now he lives in ostracism. His mother is 95 years old and although he does not think of abdicating, his brother Carlos, his, heir to the throne, with whom they say he has a disastrous relationship, has more and more weight in the Crown. Carlos wants to encircle the
royal family with his wife Camilla, his children and his grandchildren ... Well, his eldest son Guillermo because Harry and Meghan have been flying for a long time on their own with their new life in Los Angeles, where they do not miss the opportunity to criticize life of palace.
For its part, the relationship of the press with the royal family has also changed in recent decades. The BBC itself issued a documentary last year where, among others, it questioned why the FBI hid the photographs showing Prince Andrew with Giuffre when she was 17 years old, while investigating the charges of child abuse and trafficking against Epstein. In short, the media no longer cover anything. Let them tell it if not to the King Emeritus Don Juan Carlos.
Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University, says Prince Andrew "may now have to pay significant damages." "It is not about whether he will go to jail or not, he has no criminal exposure in this particular case," she explains in an interview with the BBC. Faced with the possibility that the royal would have to go to trial, the expert points out that the Duke of York's legal team would probably be more concerned that it comes at a "really unfortunate moment", coinciding with the Maxwell trial in November. “With this civil lawsuit pending and Maxwell about to go to trial on criminal charges, there may be even more pressure, and indeed temptation, for her to cooperate with federal prosecutors and perhaps provide more information on all the individuals who were in custody. Jeffrey Epstein's orbit and that, supposedly, could include the prince himself ”, he adds.
