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Final week, Britain’s Prince Andrew fired his newest salvo in his litigation with Virginia Giuffre, demanding a jury trial within the sex-abuse lawsuit she filed towards him. Giuffre, a sufferer of Jeffrey Epstein’s intercourse ring, sued the embattled royal in August.
Now attorneys for Andrew and Giuffre will quickly query a number of witnesses beneath oath—together with Shukri Walker, a British girl who says she noticed Andrew and then-17-year-old Giuffre at a London nightclub—and Robert Olney, a former royal attendant to the Duke of York.
On Monday, new courtroom filings revealed the Manhattan federal decide within the case has formally requested help from authorities in Australia to acquire testimony and paperwork from two extra witnesses: Giuffre’s husband, Robert, and her psychologist Dr. Judith Lightfoot.
The prince’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, is searching for this testimony to bolster his protection that Giuffre “could undergo from false recollections,” the courtroom paperwork present. Andrew’s group alleges Giuffre’s “claims concerning her time with Epstein and the circumstances beneath which [Andrew] allegedly assaulted her have repeatedly modified over time.”
Andrew’s group needs to query Lightfoot about matters together with Giuffre’s “alleged childhood trauma and abuse” and “opinions concerning [Giuffre’s] alleged emotional and psychological hurt and damages,” in addition to “principle of false recollections.”
In the meantime, the 61-year-old royal needs to query Robert Giuffre, Virginia’s husband, about her relationship with Epstein and his convicted confederate Ghislaine Maxwell—whom Virginia accused for years of sending her to Andrew to be sexually abused. The protection named different topics of inquiry, together with the operations of her nonprofit, Victims Refuse Silence, her “alleged emotional and psychological hurt and damages,” and her “position in recruiting and trafficking underage women for Epstein.”
Choose Lewis Kaplan additionally formally requested help from authorities within the U.Okay. for Walker and Olney’s testimonies, that are sought by Giuffre’s attorneys.
Giuffre’s lawsuit towards the prince is predicted to move to trial this fall.
The royal isn’t the one confidant of Epstein to make use of a “false recollections” protection in face of sexual abuse accusations. At his pal Maxwell’s legal trial in December, her attorneys referred to as a “false reminiscence” knowledgeable to testify that accusers’ recollections of occasions could be corrupted over time or implanted by others.
As The Every day Beast reported final week, Andrew plans to argue one key piece of proof—a photograph displaying Andrew gripping the teenage Giuffre's naked waist as Maxwell smiles within the background—is a fabrication.
In keeping with Giuffre, Maxwell and Epstein compelled her into intercourse acts with Andrew when she was beneath the age of 18 on at the very least three events: at Maxwell’s London townhome, at Epstein’s New York mansion, and at Epstein’s compound within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Giuffre “was compelled by specific or implied threats by Epstein, Maxwell, and/or Prince Andrew to interact in sexual acts with Prince Andrew,” her civil grievance states, including that she “feared demise or bodily harm” ought to she disobey them “attributable to their highly effective connections, wealth, and authority.”