A federal judge in New York has ruled that a sex assault lawsuit against Britan’s Prince Andrew can proceed, denying the Duke of York’s motion to dismiss the case.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who serves on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, denied “in all respects” Prince Andrew’s request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre.
“Ms. Giuffre’s complaint is neither ‘unintelligible’ nor ‘vague’ nor ‘ambiguous,'” Kaplan wrote in his ruling. “It alleges discrete incidents of sexual abuse in particular circumstances at three identifiable locations. It identifies to whom it attributes that sexual abuse.”
Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in August, alleging that she was sexually trafficked to the royal by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein when she was 17 and said she was coerced into sexual encounters with the prince in 2001 by Epstein and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Prince Andrew has denied the allegations against him. In a 2019 interview with the BBC, the royal said that sex with Giuffre “didn’t happen” and he has “no recollection” of ever meeting her.
Buckingham Palace told The Associated Press that it would not comment on the “ongoing legal matter.”
Attorneys for Prince Andrew said that the lawsuit lacked specificity and was disqualified by a deal she reached in 2009 with lawyers for Epstein.
That settlement of a lawsuit was reached a decade before Epstein killed himself at a Manhattan lockup as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.
Maxwell was convicted last month in a separate case of helping to recruit and groom teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
The socialite and longtime cohort of Epstein was found guilty of conspiracy to entice minors to travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, conspiracy to transport minors to travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking a minor. She was acquitted on one count of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
Kaplan noted that he was required by law, at this stage of the litigation, to proceed as if the allegations made by Giuffre are true.
“The law prohibits the Court from considering at this stage of the proceedings defendant’s efforts to cast doubt on the truth of Ms. Giuffre’s allegations, even though his efforts would be permissible at trial,” Kaplan said.
Giuffre’s settlement with Epstein was reached a decade before the financier killed himself at a Manhattan lockup as he awaited a sex trafficking trial in 2019.
But Kaplan wrote that there were substantial indications in the $500,000 settlement that Epstein and Giuffre did not clearly intend for language to “directly,” “primarily,” or “substantially” benefit someone such as the prince. He noted that the prince was not a party to the agreement.
He also said the agreement was “far from a model of clear and precise drafting.”
The judge’s findings mirrored comments he made during oral arguments by both sides when he was particularly dismissive of the arguments made on the prince’s behalf.
Epstein took his own life in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial.
Giuffre’s allegations against Prince Andrew were not a part of either criminal case.
