Cops quiz prince’s sex accuser
Police in London have spoken to the woman who claims she was raped and sexually assaulted by Prince Andrew on three occasions when she was 17.
Officers are understood to have contacted Virginia Giuffre about her allegations after Cressida Dick, London’s Metropolitan Police commissioner, said in August that ‘‘no one is above the law’’.
The development could pave the way for the police to open a criminal investigation of Giuffre’s claims, which Andrew has always strenuously denied.
Giuffre, 38, who is also known as Virginia Roberts, has alleged that on one occasion in March 2001 she was trafficked to London from America by the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with Andrew at the Belgravia home of Ghislaine
Maxwell, a British socialite. Maxwell denies the claims.
It can also be revealed that Prince William believes Andrew presents a reputational ‘‘threat’’ to the royal family and shares the view of his father, Prince Charles, that Andrew should never be allowed to return to public life. ‘‘William is no fan of Uncle Andrew,’’ a friend said.
Giuffre’s allegations against the prince have been examined by the police on at least two previous occasions since 2015. However, the force failed to open a full investigation each time, saying the case was a matter for the US authorities.
The decision to approach Giuffre now comes after she filed a civil lawsuit against Andrew in New York in August. It accuses the prince of ‘‘rape in the first degree’’ and alleges that he abused Giuffre for the first time at Maxwell’s home in London after a visit to Tramp nightclub in Mayfair.
He says he has ‘‘no recollection’’ of ever meeting her.
Giuffre also claims that she was made to have sex with Andrew at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and on Little St James, his private island in the Caribbean, later in 2001.
Days after the lawsuit was filed, Dick announced that the police would consider the allegations again. ‘‘As a result of what’s going on, I’ve asked my team to have another look at the material,’’ she said. ‘‘No one is above the law.’’
Yesterday it remained unclear whether the police had taken a formal statement from Giuffre, who now lives in Australia.
‘‘We would not confirm who we may or may not have spoken to,’’ the force said in a statement.
However, Giuffre’s US lawyer, Sigrid Mccawley, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, urged the police to take further action. ‘‘Given the clear and compelling evidence implicating Prince Andrew, the Metropolitan police should reopen its investigation and stand by their statement that no one is above the law.’’
The duke’s lawyers are seeking to have Giuffre’s lawsuit thrown out of court, but have pledged to ‘‘robustly’’ challenge the allegations on a point-bypoint basis should the case go ahead.
Andrew, 61, withdrew from royal duties in 2019 after a disastrous interview with the BBC’S Newsnight in which he spoke about his friendship with Epstein and failed to express any sympathy for the paedophile’s victims.
The prince was also widely mocked for claiming that he could not have met Giuffre on one of the days she claims because he was at a branch of Pizza Express in Woking, a small town outside of London.
Epstein, 66, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for multiple child sex charges.
His former girlfriend, Maxwell, 59, is due to go on trial in New York next month on child sex trafficking charges, which she denies.