Update, as of September 10, 2021: According to CNBC, Prince Andrew has officially been served with a lawsuit filed by Virginia Robert Giuffre, who has accused him of having sex with her when she was underage, a new court filing revealed. “The document says the suit was left with a police officer on duty at the gates of the property occupied by Andrew.”
Previous reports suggest that one of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers will be suing Prince Andrew, a son of Queen Elizabeth’s. According to ABC News, Virginia Roberts Giuffre has filed a lawsuit against the royal family member “days before the expiration date of a New York state law that permits alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil claims that might otherwise be barred by statutes of limitations.”
The filing also comes nearly two years to the day that Epstein died in prison. At the time of his death, Epstein was charged with conspiracy and child sex trafficking.
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In a statement giving to ABC News, Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, said, “If she doesn’t do it now, she would be allowing him to escape any accountability for his actions. And Virginia is committed to trying to avoid situations where rich and powerful people escape any accountability for their actions.”
The lawsuit itself further states that “20 years ago, Prince Andrew’s wealth, power, position, and connections enabled him to abuse a frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her. It is long past the time for him to be held to account.”
It further accuses Prince Andrew directly of sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. As a result, Giuffre is seeking “unspecified” compensatory and punitive damages.
In a statement of her own, Giuffre admitted that the decision to sue Prince Andrew wasn’t an easy one to make. However, she believes wholeheartedly that he should be held accountable for his actions against her.
“I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me. The powerful and the rich are not exempt from being held responsible for their actions. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but one can reclaim her life by speaking out and demanding justice. I did not come to this decision lightly. As a mother and a wife, my family comes first. I know that this action will subject me to further attacks by Prince Andrew and his surrogates. But I knew that if I did not pursue this action, I would be letting them and victims everywhere down.”
A spokesperson for Prince Andrew said the royal will not be commenting on the lawsuit.
Giuffre first accused the prince of sexual abuse in 2014, according to ABC News. She alleged that she was told by Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell to “have sex” with the prince on three separate occasions. Each occasion took place in a different section of the world; New York, London, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Since he was first accused, Prince Andrew has denied all accusations Giuffre has made against him. And in response to a photo Giuffre has of them from 2001 when she was just 17, Andrew suggested that it was doctored.
“I don’t believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested,” the prince said during a 2019 interview. “I think it’s, from the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not, because it is a photograph, of a photograph, of a photograph. So it’s very difficult to be able to prove it, but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.”
In the same interview, which has been widely criticized and effectively stepped down as a working member for the royal family as a result, he further claimed that he had an alibi for the date in which he’s accused.
“I was at home,” Andrew said. “I was with the children, and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of 4 or 5 in the afternoon. And then, because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other one is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy, so therefore I was at home.”
According to her legal team, all efforts to “have a dialogue” with Andrew or his advisers have been ignored. “If she had simply failed to sue now, it would have validated the stonewalling tactics that Andrew and his advisers have employed,” Boies told ABC News.
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