NEW YORK – Britain’s Prince Andrew has been served legal papers in a United States suit brought by a woman who said he sexually abused her when she was a teenager, a court filing yesterday showed.
The complaint was delivered to the royal’s home in Windsor, England, on August 27, according to an affidavit filed in the Southern District here.
Virginia Giuffre said she was “lent out” for underage sex by US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for the sex trafficking of minors.
Giuffre sued Andrew last month, alleging he sexually abused her at the London home of socialite Ghislaine Maxwell more than 20 years ago, when she was under 18.
Giuffre also said Andrew abused her at Epstein’s New York mansion and in Little St James, Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Andrew, 61, has vehemently denied claims he had sex with Giuffre, and said he has no recollection of meeting her, but the allegations have damaged the British royal family.
An agent for Giuffre in the affidavit said he handed the papers to a police officer at the main gates of Andrew’s property and did not meet Queen Elizabeth II’s second son.
A spokesman for the prince refused to comment when asked by AFP.
Andrew, a divorced father of two and former navy helicopter pilot who flew in the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina, was forced to step back from front-line royal duties in late 2019.
That followed a furore over a rare television interview he gave to the BBC, in which he defended his friendship with Epstein, a multimillion-dollar hedge fund manager who befriended countless celebrities.
Andrew – who, as a young man, was considered one of Britain’s most eligible bachelors, and dubbed “Randy Andy” in the tabloid press – later issued a statement in which he said he “unequivocally” regrets his “ill-judged association” with Epstein.
He has made few public appearances since, but joined other senior royals for the funeral of his father Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, at Windsor Castle in April.
Maxwell in April pleaded not guilty to charges of recruiting underage girls for Epstein. She is due to go on trial on November 29.
Giuffre sued Andrew under the Child Victims Act as she was 17 at the time. The first hearing in the case is set for Monday. – AFP, September 11, 2021
