‘Arrogant Duke can’t hide for ever’

AN ‘ARROGANT’ Prince Andrew has woefully underestimated the severity of the case against him, a source close to his sex accuser Virginia Giuffre has revealed.

Accusing the Prince of trying to hide behind a wall of silence, the American source suggested that her legal team had been astonished by the naivety of Andrew’s tactics and warned his evasive approach was certain to backfire.

There is mounting concern at the Palace too, where the Queen’s courtiers are piling pressure on the Prince to change tack and speak out publicly.

The Queen has met with Andrew in the past few days at Balmoral and aides close to the Monarch now fear the silence will damage the Royal Family itself.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Andrew was facing renewed sex claims in a New York court. The civil lawsuit alleges that Andrew sexually abused Ms Giuffre at the Manhattan home of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and at other locations in 2001, when she was a 17-year-old minor.

Ms Giuffre, whose maiden name was Roberts, also claims that

Andrew ‘stonewalled’ communications from her lawyer and rejected a request to explore alternative dispute resolution.

If Andrew was hoping the allegations would fade – and that he could resume a place in public life – the fresh legal case has placed him back at the centre of controversy.

Now the Palace fears it will be dragged in too, unless the Queen’s second son makes some attempt to diffuse the mounting tension. The Prince has not spoken publicly in the past week, but in an interview with BBC Two’s Newsnight in 2019, he said he could not remember meeting Ms Giuffre and categorically denied that they had sex.

One well-placed palace insider said: ‘There’s a growing sense that his legal team need to say something, even if it is just to acknowledge that they are working on it. The Duke’s legal team is not doing him or the rest of the family any favours by being so taciturn.’

One source said: ‘The Queen met with Andrew and no doubt asked him, “What are your lawyers saying? What’s the advice?” ’

The source said there was‘ bafflement’ about the strategy of Andrew’ s legal team, which includes Gary Bloxsome of the firm Blackfords and advice from Blair Berk, a female lawyer who previously represented Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

So far they have refused even to reiterate Andrew’s previous claim that he has no recollection of meeting Ms Giuffre.

One insider said the paranoia within Andrew’s team was such that the lawyers had ‘hunkered down’ and were even ‘blanking’ requests for information from other aides.

The source close to Ms Giuffre’s advisers – headed by heavyweight US litigator David Boies – said of Andrew’s legal team: ‘If I was to give you one word which sums up the attitude from Prince Andrew and his side, it is “arrogance”. No one out-bluffs David Boies.

‘We gave them multiple times to respond, to come to the table to discuss this, and they ignored our letters, ignored our calls.

‘They were given multiple opportunities to get together, to start a discussion and avoid any of this becoming public. There was nothing but a wall of silence.’

A preliminary hearing has been set for September 13 in Manhattan.

‘There was nothing but a wall of silence from him’