Often presented as Elizabeth II’s favorite son, Prince Andrew is involved in the sexual assault scandal related to US Financial Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019. A civil law trial could be held at the end of the year. 2022.
Le Monde with AFP
The decision of American justice was at least expected. The lawyers of the British Prince Andrew did not obtain from the Manhattan Federal Court judge the classification without a civilian complaint for “sexual assault”, filed in New York by Virginia Giauffre for facts dating back to 2001, while ‘She was still a minor.
In its decision, Justice Lewis Kaplan believes that the request for the rejection of this civil complaint, filed in the summer of 2021 by Virginia Giauffre, one of the victims of the sexual crimes of US Financial Jeffrey Epstein, must be “refused in all respects “. In the autumn, he said that if a trial should take place, it could be held “between September and December” 2022.
In his complaint, the accuser affirms that the Prince has sexually assaulted “three times in 2001 while she was only 17 years old and called Virginia Roberts. The facts were held in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands, in residences of the couple formed by the American multimillion Jeffrey Epstein and the British worldly Ghislaine Maxwell, both Friends of Prince Andrew.
Jeffrey Epstein, Jet-Set figure, committed suicide in prison in Manhattan in August 2019, shortly before her trial for sexual crimes. His companion and accomplice for three decades, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, is in prison since the summer of 2020. It was found guilty last week in New York of teenage sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein and incurs dozens of years of imprisonment.
Photos attest to their proximity
Prince’s lawyers have done everything for nearly six months to block Virginia GIuffre’s complaint – who seeks financial compensation – advancing that it is legally “unfounded”.
The prince, 61, who is not prosecuted at the penal, denies on his side “categorically” having assaulted Virginia Roberts and even asserts not to remember this young girl.
yet, many broadcast photos attest to the proximity between Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Giuffre, including a photograph of 2000 showing the US financial, the British worldly and the prince to a hunting party in the is from England. Another photo shows Andrew and Virginia Giuffre standing through the size, smiling, with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background.
At the civilian level, Prince’s lawyers relied on a 2009 agreement between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giauffre, also presumed victim of the jet-settr.
Monday, January 3, New York Judges made public, so far confidential, under which Virginia Giauffer had received $ 500,000 from Jeffrey Epstein. And, according to this transaction signed in Florida twelve years ago, Virginia Giuffre undertook to continue Jeffrey Epstein, nor “other potential accused” in his entourage.
Andrew not “covered” by an agreement
The name or title of the Duke of York are not mentioned in this contractual document, but the defense of Andrew believes that it protects Jeffrey Epstein and all his relatives, and therefore the prince.
On the contrary, Virginia Giauffre’s lawyers retort that Andrew is not “covered” by this agreement that “does not quote” and “he did not even know” in 2009. ”
On December 31, Manhattan J. had rejected another nullity request formulated by Andrew, on the grounds that Virginia Giauffre could not complain in the United States because it “resides” in Australia.