Prince Andrew today faced the prospect of more damaging claims emerging as lawyers predicted his battle to get his sex accuser’s case thrown out of a US court is doomed to defeat.
Andrew’s lawyers spent an hour in a teleconference with New York judge Lewis A Kaplan trying to persuade him to dismiss Virginia Giuffre’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her in New York, London and the US Virgin Islands.
They argued that the prince was protected from legal action by a 2009 settlement agreed by his sex offender friend Jeffrey Epstein with Ms Giuffre, right, and that her new lawsuit was also unconstitutional because it was filed too late.
Observers noted, however, that the judge — who has promised a verdict “pretty soon” — had zeroed in on a clause in the settlement that appears to give Ms Giuffre a veto over allowing anyone other than Epstein to be covered by it.
Defeat for Andrew would mean that the process of “discovery”, which is continuing pending the judge’s decision, will lead to further evidence being presented to the court, including an account of alleged assaults.
Lisa Bloom, a US lawyer who represents victims of abuse, said she was “optimistic that Virginia will get her day in court” and criticised the attempt to get “the judge to say NY’s law giving child sexual abuse victims more time to sue is unconstitutional”. Prince Andrew denies any impropriety.
