Who is Virginia Giuffre and what are her accusations against Prince Andrew?
The hearing on Giuffre's lawsuit against the Duke of York is scheduled for January 4 in New York
A woman who claims to have been a victim of sex trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein has filed a civil lawsuit in which she accuses Prince Andrew of sexual assault.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 38, filed her lawsuit against the Duke of York in New York's Southern District Court in August under the state's Child Victims Law.
The lawsuit alleges that Prince Andrew sexually abused Giuffre as a teenager on multiple occasions in London, Manhattan and the US Virgin Islands in 2001, allegations he denies.
Prince Andrew's legal team has sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that a 2009 settlement between Giuffre and Epstein will stop the sex-based civil suit against the prince.
The legal document is expected to be revealed and made public today. Andrew B. Brettler, who represents the Duke, had argued at an earlier hearing that Giuffre had reached a "settlement agreement" that would end his lawsuit.
Who is Virginia Guiffre?
Virginia Guiffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, met the now-condemned Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000, at the age of 17, when she was working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where the father of Giuffre also worked as a maintenance manager.
Maxwell approached her and asked if she was interested in being Epstein's masseuse. However, according to Giuffre's claims, both Epstein and Maxwell began manipulating her.
Giuffre was allegedly a victim of human trafficking with Prince Andrew, 41, in 2001. The Duke is accused of having sex with Giuffre (then known by her maiden name, Virginia Roberts) on three occasions: a trip to London in 2001, when she was 17, for which she was paid $15,000, and later in New York and on Little Saint James, a small private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Despite flight logs and photos revealing Giuffre and Prince Andrew had spent time together, the Duke has denied ever meeting or having sex with her. Most famously, in a BBC Newsnight interview in 2019, he pointed out that she was at a Pizza Express in Woking and not having sex in London as claimed against her.
What are the accusations against Prince Andrew?
Virginia Giuffre's lawsuit against the Duke alleges that he had sex with her without consent despite knowing her age and that he was a victim of sex trafficking. The prince, a longtime friend of Epstein, has vehemently denied the allegations and will seek to dismiss the lawsuit at a hearing on January 4, 2022.
In her lawsuit, Giuffre claims that she has continued to suffer "significant emotional and psychological distress" decades after the alleged assaults.
He is seeking unspecified damages, but it is speculated that the sum could be in the millions of dollars.
“Twenty years ago, Prince Andrew's wealth, power, position and connections allowed him to abuse a frightened and vulnerable girl with no one there to protect her. The time for her to be held accountable is long overdue,” the lawsuit states.
Prince Andrew spoke out about the allegations in a 2019 television interview with Emily Maitlis.
“It hasn't happened. I can say absolutely categorically that it never happened. I have no recollection of meeting this lady, none at all,” he asserted.
The Duke's legal team previously tried to get the case dismissed on the grounds that she lives in Australia and not the US, as the lawsuit suggests.
However, the attempted dismissal suffered a setback when US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan denied Prince Andrew's lawyers' motion to dismiss the suit on jurisdictional grounds.
The 2009 settlement agreement between Giuffre and Andrew's former friend and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public later today as Judge Kaplan will hear another request from the Duke's legal team to have the case dismissed. .
Brettler had previously said at the New York hearing that the settlement "releases Prince Andrew and others from any alleged liability arising from the claims Giuffre asserted here against Prince Andrew."
