Andrew has ‘war chest’ to fight back
PRINCE Andrew has reportedly amassed a £10million (€11.4m) “war chest” to launch a legal case against Virginia Giuffre.
The disgraced royal is said to want to clear his name after damning links to paedophile and ex-pal Jeffrey Epstein and criminal Ghislaine Maxwell — as well as accusations against him.
The £12million (€13.6m) settlement in Ms Giuffre’s civil case against him came with no admission of guilt by Andrew, who continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Andrew has reportedly been given fresh hope after Giuffre (38) withdrew a sex abuse allegation against US lawyer Alan Dershowitz and admitted she “may have made a mistake”.
Andrew will reportedly claim in court that he never met Ms Giuffre and that a notorious photo of them together with Maxwell was faked.
Jury
The US civil sex case was settled last year after it was believed Prince Andrew would have been due to appear before a jury.
He has been widely criticised for his association with Epstein, and even stayed at his mansion in February 2011 shortly after the financier was released from jail for child sex offences.
In a later interview with the
BBC, Andrew would claim he stayed with Epstein because it was the “honourable thing”.
Andrew was later stripped of all his military affiliations and royal charity patronages by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth
II.
GHISLAINE Maxwell has said teenage victims of Jeffrey Epstein should take their anger out on the authorities who “allowed” the paedophile to die in prison.
The disgraced British socialite is serving a 20-year sentence after she was found guilty in December 2021 of luring girls for Prince Andrew’s pal to molest between 1994 and 2004.
Epstein, a billionaire financier, was able to hang himself in his cell as he awaited trial for sex abuse — robbing his victims of justice.
Now, talking from behind bars in her first TV interview since her sentencing, Maxwell failed to apologise to those she procured to be abused.
In an interview broadcast on TalkTV last night, she said: “Epstein died, and they should take their disappointment and upset out on the authorities that allowed that to happen.
“I hope that they have some closure by the judicial process that took place.”
Friends
Last year, the 61-year-old spoke for the first time since being jailed, saying she could no longer be friends with the Duke of York.
In her new interview, she discussed her friendship with Andrew (62) while also discussing the now infamous photo of her, him, and Virginia Giuffre, who claims the royal abused her. She defended the Duke while saying of the picture: “It’s a fake. I don’t believe it’s real for a second, in fact I’m sure it’s not.”
Ms Giuffre and her legal team have used the image as evidence to support her allegations against the prince before the case was settled outside of court last year.
She sued the prince in New York for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after claiming she was loaned out to him for sex by Epstein, the former boyfriend of Maxwell. Andrew denies her claims. Attorneys in the US yesterday said the prince should “just feel grateful that he is not in jail”. Lisa Bloom represents several of Epstein’s victims and said: “Prince Andrew signed his name to a settlement. “And now he wants out?
“Forget it.”