British Prince Andrew, targeted by a civil complaint for “sexual assault”, can he escape justice thanks to the protection of a 2009 agreement between his friend Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sex crimes and died in prison in 2019 , and one of his accusers?
Federal justice in New York released Monday a hitherto confidential financial compensation settlement sealed in 2009 between Mr. Epstein and an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, on the eve of a crucial hearing in this case.
Under the terms of this agreement, Mr.me Giuffre undertook not to file a complaint against Jeffrey Epstein, nor against “other potential defendants” in the entourage of the American multimillionaire, a sexual predator of minors who committed suicide in his New York prison in August 2019, before his criminal trial.
However, Prince Andrew, friend of Mr. Epstein and his companion and accomplice for 30 years Ghislaine Maxwell, is the subject of a civil complaint filed in New York in August by Mr.me Giuffre for “sexual assault” committed in 2001, when she was 17 years old.
This civil action, which seeks to obtain damages, has nothing to do with criminal proceedings and Andrew, who “categorically” denies these allegations, is not criminally prosecuted for sex crimes.
Block the complaint
According to Virginia Giuffre, Queen Elizabeth’s second son allegedly sexually assaulted her three times 20 years ago at Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in New York, the US Virgin Islands and London.
But the prince’s lawyers have been doing everything for six months to block this complaint and say that the 2009 agreement prevents legal action.
In fact, the settlement, which allowed Virginia Giuffre to receive $ 500,000, protected Jeffrey Epstein, but also, it seems, any “other potential accused” according to the imprecise legal formulation of the contract document of 2009.
The Duke of York’s name or royal title is not mentioned, but Andrew’s lawyers argue that Mr.me Giuffre is unfounded in law.
On the contrary, the plaintiff’s lawyer, David Boeis, replied Monday that the prince was not “covered” by an agreement which “does not quote him” and of which “he was not even aware” in 2009.
The fate of the complaint could be concluded on Tuesday. At 3:00 p.m. (10:00 a.m. in Quebec), a videoconference hearing is scheduled between Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan and lawyers for both parties to determine whether the complaint should be dismissed.
The judge has already rejected on December 31 another nullity request made by Andrew, on the grounds that Mr.me Giuffre could not sue in the United States because she “resides” in Australia.
Civil lawsuit at the end of 2022?
If all of Andrew’s remedies fail, a civil trial could be held “between September and December” 2022, Judge Kaplan said this fall.
In addition, the lawyers of Mme Giuffre ask that the prince produce a medical certificate attesting that his body cannot sweat, that he is thus never “sweaty”.
Indeed, in his last interview with the BBC in November 2019, deemed calamitous, he had denied having danced “sweaty” with Virginia Giuffre in a nightclub in London more than 20 years ago, as she had recounted. . The prince would suffer from an impossibility of “sweating” since the Falklands War in 1982, when his body would have produced too much adrenaline.
Widely circulated, especially in the United Kingdom, a number of photos attest to the links between Andrew, Epstein, Maxwell and Giuffre. In particular a snapshot from 2000 showing the American financier, the British socialite and the prince on a hunting party at the Sandringham estate (east of England).
Another photo shows Andrew and Giuffre holding each other at the waist, all smiles, with Maxwell in the background, but the prince has expressed doubts as to the authenticity of the photo.
For more than two years, his friendship with the Maxwell-Epstein couple plunged him into turmoil and forced him to retire from public life.
For her part, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on December 29 in New York of sex trafficking of minors for the benefit of Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia Giuffre, who was not a party to the Maxwell trial, welcomed the judgment and said she hoped others “will be held to account”.