Prince Andrew ’s lawyers were last night in emergency talks after the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell – as they considered calling one of her victims to help clear him of sex charges in a civil case.
Andrew is accused of sexual abuse and rape in the first and third degree.
The guilty verdicts on five of six charges faced by his socialite pal leave her facing up to 65 years in jail.
Jurors found her guilty of procuring, grooming and trafficking girls for sex for the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
The jurors’ decision may concern the Duke of York’s legal team, given the burden of proof in a criminal case is far higher than that needed in a civil case.
Crimes in America must generally be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt”, whereas civil cases require lower standards of proof such as “the preponderance of the evidence”.
But the royal’s lawyers maintain Maxwell’s New York trial was “disastrous” for his accuser Virginia Giuffre, who the prosecution declined to call despite her claims she was Jeffrey Epstein’s teen sex slave.
His legal team also believe testimony during Maxwell’s trial leaves Giuffre’s lawsuit “seriously, if not fatally, weakened”.
One of the four victims of Maxwell, 60, testified that it was Giuffre who introduced her to Epstein.
Andrew’s lawyers are thinking of calling the victim, known only as Carolyn, as a witness in the Duke’s civil case in the US, to paint Giuffre herself as someone recruiting victims for Epstein.
A legal source said: “Andrew’s US team immediately seized upon Carolyn’s testimony. They believe she holds a smoking gun to any possible role Virginia played in Epstein’s pyramid scheme of abuse.
“Andrew’s lawyers have convinced him that if he is to stand any chance of preventing her case from going to court, they need to fight with fire and that nothing should be off-limits.”
Carolyn was the third accuser to testify in Maxwell’s New York trial. She told how the Brit organised sexualised massages with Wall Street financier Epstein, starting when she was 14.
Carolyn said Giuffre introduced her to Epstein and Maxwell at his Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s.
Her then boyfriend knew Giuffre, which was how they met, she said. Carolyn said: “Virginia asked me if I wanted to come make money.” She later testified Giuffre was 18 at the time.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey asked: “Did Virginia tell you what you had to do to make that money?”
“Not right away,” Carolyn said.
In her lawsuit against the Duke, Giuffre claims she was sex-trafficked to Andrew on three occasions by Epstein, the first time in London when she was 17. The prince has consistently and vehemently denied her claims.
In seeking to turn the tables on Giuffre, his US lawyer Andrew Brettler claims she was involved in the “wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse”.
The court papers quote Crystal Figueroa, the sister of one of Giuffre’s ex-boyfriends, who claims Andrew’s accuser asked her for help. Crystal said: “[Giuffre] would say to me, ‘Do you know any girls who are kind of slutty?’”
Brettler’s court filing adds: “It is a striking feature of this case that while lurid allegations are made against Prince Andrew by Giuffre, the only party to this claim whose conduct has involved the wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse is Giuffre herself, including while she was an adult.”
The Record understands Carolyn may not be the only Maxwell prosecution witness Andrew’s lawyers may call in his civil case.
They are also considering calling Juan Alessi, Epstein’s former butler at his Palm Beach mansion in Florida.
The 72-year-old has previously spoken about Andrew, once saying he never saw the Duke with Giuffre.
In a previous civil case, Alessi swore on oath how he set up massage tables for the prince daily during an extended stay in the early 2000s.
He added: “Prince Andrew spent weeks with us. [He would sleep] in the main room, the main guest bedroom. That was the blue room.”
Asked whether the royal frequently had massages, Alessi said: “I would say daily massages. I can’t remember if he had more than one [a day], but I think it was just a massage for him.
“We set up the tables.”
He later told our sister paper the Mirror he never witnessed Andrew take part in any of the sexual impropriety claimed against him. “I met Prince Andrew twice at the house of Epstein,” he said.
“The only thing I can say about him was that he was a complete gentleman.
“He was a nice guy. I never see him with girls. I never see him with Virginia Roberts [now Giuffre]. I never saw him naked or actually having the massage. If he had a massage, like I say in my deposition, everything was upstairs behind closed doors.”
The prosecution did not explain why it had not called mum-of-three Giuffre, 38, as a witness.
Andrew’s team believe they feared inconsistencies that have emerged over the years in her well-publicised story might not have been helpful. Since instructing Hollywood lawyer Brettler, the Duke, 61, has taken an aggressive approach to have Giuffre’s case against him dismissed.
Giuffre has used New York’s Child Victims Act that allowed people to sue their alleged abusers.
In 2019, New York lawmakers introduced a “look-back window” in the Child Victims Act that raised the deadline to 55 years of age, giving victims of decades-old abuse two years to file civil claims by August 14, 2021. Giuffre filed the lawsuit five days before the window closed.
The Duke’s team tried to get the case dismissed, arguing as Giuffre lives in Australia and he in the UK, the US has no jurisdiction over both.
It came after the Prince’s previous legal bid to have the lawsuit thrown out, calling it “unintelligible” and deliberately vague. The royal went further in his motion to have the case dismissed, arguing the law that allowed her to sue in America was “unconstitutional”.
His legal team claimed he is prevented from being sued under a 2009 financial deal Giuffre made with Jeffrey Epstein, which barred her from pursuing the financier’s associates.
In an 11-page document, Andrew attacked Giuffre’s claims that he raped and sexually abused her after she was forced to sleep with him by the billionaire paedophile. The Duke has “absolutely and categorically” denied all of her allegations throughout.
Epstein, 66, committed suicide in August 2019 while in jail.
He had been arrested a month earlier and was in prison charged with child sex offences.
Judge Lewis Kaplan will hear arguments on the motion to dismiss Giuffre’s case at a hearing on Tuesday.
