CASE AGAINST PRINCE MOVING FORWARD
NEW YORK: A US federal judge has ruled that the sex abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew brought by a longtime Jeffrey Epstein accuser could move forward.
Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the royal’s motion to dismiss Australianbased woman Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s civil suit against him.
New York Post reports that Prince Andrew’s lawyers had argued to dismiss the suit – claiming Ms Roberts Giuffre was barred from suing him because of a 2009 settlement agreement that she inked with Epstein, to dismiss a Florida suit she brought against the late paedophile.
The agreement releases “other potential defendants” from being sued by Ms Roberts Giuffre, but Judge Kaplan wrote in his decision that the language of the agreement is too ambiguous for him to dismiss the suit against the Queen’s second-born son.
“The parties have articulated at least two reasonable interpretations of the critical language,” Judge Kaplan wrote.
“The agreement therefore is ambiguous. Accordingly, the determination of the meaning of the release language in the 2009 Agreement must await further proceedings.”
Ms Roberts Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in a New York federal court in August, claiming she was forced to have sex with the royal three times, while she was a teen.
Ms Roberts Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, claims she was directed by paedophile billionaire Epstein and his cohort Ghislaine Maxwell each time she allegedly had sex with the royal.
The abuse happened in New York, London and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, according to the suit.
In the suit, Ms Roberts Giuffre’s lawyers describe her as a “child” who was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew – and feared for her life if she didn’t do as instructed.
Lawyers for Prince Andrew have not yet commented.