Prince Andrew loses challenge against accuser
>>MANHATTAN: A judge denied Prince Andrew’s request to question a woman suing him for sexual assault about whether she’s a resident of Australia instead of the US, an issue that could affect the court’s jurisdiction in the case.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan on Friday said Prince Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, had already promised to provide documents supporting her claim of residency in Colorado.
In the suit Ms Giuffre filed in August, she claimed Prince Andrew sexually abused her on multiple occasions when she was 17, after Jeffrey Epstein “lent” her out to the British royal and other men.
Though a US citizen, Ms Giuffre can’t sue a British national in US federal court if her own legal residence is in a foreign country. Prince Andrew has claimed that she has lived in Australia for all but two of the last 19 years.
Ms Giuffre said in a Thursday court filing that she lives in Australia, but that her residence for legal purposes is Colorado.
She suggested Prince Andrew was merely trying to delay handing over evidence in the case.
“If Prince Andrew truly has no documents concerning his communications with Maxwell or Epstein, his travel to Florida, New York, or various locations in London, his alleged medical inability to sweat, or anything that would support the alibis he gave during his BBC interview, then continuing with discovery will not be burdensome to him at all,” Ms Giuffre said.