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Britain’s Prince Andrew is seeking a jury trial to clear his name in the civil sexual assault suit he is fighting in New York, which has already left him in disgrace and forced him to step down from royal duties , his lawyers announced on Wednesday.
“Prince Andrew hereby requests a jury trial on all causes of action asserted in the complaint,” his attorney wrote in a motion filed in federal court in Manhattan.
His accuser, Victoria Giuffre, said she had sex with the prince when she was 17 and a minor under US law after meeting him through late US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison two years ago while awaiting trial for sex crimes.
The prince has not been criminally charged and has denied the allegations.
Earlier this month, Andrew was stripped of his honorary military titles and charitable roles after Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected his plea to dismiss the Giuffre case, making a civil trial in New York more likely.
It is still possible that the two parties will reach a financial settlement out of court, although Giuffre’s New York lawyer, David Bowies, told AFP on Wednesday: “We look forward to confronting Prince Andrew with his denials and attempts to blame Ms. Giuffre for her own abuses during her testimony and trial.”
Giuffre, who is now 38, alleges Andrew sexually assaulted her at the London home of socialite and Epstein friend Ghislaine Maxwell after a dance party in March 2001.
She sued the prince last year for unspecified damages, alleging she was delivered to him by Epstein and Maxwell.
Last month, Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, exposing a murky world of sex trafficking among the rich and powerful.
The motion filed Wednesday, which challenges every point of Giuffre’s complaint, reiterated that “Prince Andrew denies that he was a co-conspirator of Epstein or that Epstein trafficked girls to him.”
Legal deposits
In addition to London’s allegations, Giuffre also says Andrew assaulted her at Epstein’s New York home and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Lawyers for Andrew and Giuffre have named the first witnesses they hope to toast in the trial in mid-January.
Andrew’s lawyers said in a filing that they were seeking testimony from Judith Lightfoot, Giuffre’s psychologist at his adopted home in Australia.
Lawyer Melissa Lerner said the prince’s legal team wanted to ask Lightfoot about what was discussed during his counseling sessions with Giuffre.
The prince’s lawyers argue that Giuffre “may be suffering from false memories” and want to question Lightfoot about the “false memories theory”, Lerner wrote in a formal “letter of request” submitted to Kaplan that would compel testimony in Australia.
In a separate filing, Giuffre’s lawyers told Judge Kaplan they wanted to interview two Britain-based witnesses, including Shukri Walker, who claims he saw Andrew at the London nightclub with a young girl at the time of the alleged assault.
Kaplan said earlier this month he expected a civil trial to take place “between September and December” 2022.
According to lawyers in New York, Andrew should first give a sworn statement to a lawyer, probably in Britain, and answer questions from US lawyers for the plaintiff.
The answers to these questions would be submitted as evidence to the jury, which would then decide on any financial compensation.
Experts say the prince will likely have to appear in person at some point or risk being tried in absentia, which might look wrong to him.
Giuffre’s civil complaint may not automatically turn into a criminal proceeding, although there is nothing to prevent U.S. prosecutors from pursuing charges in the future if they believe Andrew committed a crime.
Andrew, the second son of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, stepped down from public life as a royal in 2019 after a widely ridiculed BBC interview where he sought to clear himself of the accusation.
In further signs of social ostracism since, Andrew last week deactivated his social media accounts and York Racecourse in the north of England announced it was renaming an event called The Duke of York Stakes – even if it refers to a former bearer of the title.
(AFP)
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