Virginia’s day in court
After spending weeks avoiding being served with papers from a US civil suit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the Duke of York has finally relented. But even now, Prince Andrew is still determined he will never set foot in the New York City courtroom.
The Queen’s second eldest son has been accused of raping Giuffre, now 38, when she was just 17, after she was “lent out” to him by associated and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has vehemently denied her claims. “It never happened,” he said.
In a stunning turn of events, the prince has turned the tables on Giuffre, accusing her of being a sex trafficker, too. In a bid to have the case thrown out, on October 29, the prince’s legal team cited a New York Daily News story from 2015 that claimed Giuffre recruited underage girls into Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
“It is a striking feature of this case that while lurid allegations are made against Prince Andrew by Giuffre, the only party to this claim whose conduct has involved the wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse is Giuffre herself, including while she was an adult,”
Andrew’s lawyers told the court. In the article, Crystal Figueroa, the sister of one of Giuffre’s ex-boyfriends, claims the accuser asked her for help with recruiting.
“[Giuffre] would say to me, ‘Do you know any girls who are kind of slutty?’’’ Figueroa told the publication.
Regardless of the mudslinging, after years of abuse at the hands of Epstein, Giuffre isn’t backing down and is determined to see Andrew take the stand.