Andrew: I will fight on to clear my name
It’s a marathon not a sprint, says insider ... who insists duke will NOT settle US sex case
DEFIANT Prince Andrew was fighting on last night rather than settle the US sex claims against him.
A source close to the prince declared his New York civil case, in which the duke has been accused of rape and sexual assault, was a ‘marathon not a sprint’.
Andrew was left with ‘only bad options’, legal experts said, after his bid to have the case thrown out was dismissed.
Despite pleas for Andrew to ‘do the right thing for the Queen’ and offer his accuser millions to avoid a trial, the duke appeared to be digging in for the long haul.
His accuser, Jeffrey Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts, was, however, said to be determined to snub any offer of cash in favour of having her day in court.
Their positions dramatically raised the likelihood of a showdown between the Queen’s second son and Miss Roberts in a New York court this autumn.
In a crushing ruling this week, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the senior royal’s arguments for cancelling the case.
Roberts, who is suing Andrew for undisclosed damages under her married name of Giuffre, alleges she was forced to have sex with him three times in 2001 when she was 17 and a trafficking victim.
Last night a source close to the duke said: ‘Given the robustness with which Judge Kaplan greeted our arguments, we are unsurprised by the ruling. However, it was not a judgment on the merits of Ms Giuffre’s allegations.’
They added: ‘This is a marathon not a sprint and the duke will continue to defend himself against these claims.’ Andrew has been accused of trying to ‘dodge, duck, run and hide’ from the case, initially by using his mother’s palaces to avoid being served with the legal papers.
After that failed, he came out fighting with his US lawyer branding Miss Roberts a ‘money-hungry sex kitten’ who had ‘initiated this baseless lawsuit to achieve another payday’. Last week, the duke – who strenuously denies all the accusations – attempted to have the case struck out in a crunch hearing in Manhattan. But his bid was comprehensively dismissed by Judge Kaplan on Wednesday.
It led to widespread calls for him to stump up millions to settle the case rather than submit himself to a humiliating and disastrous courtroom grilling about his sex life in the Platinum Jubilee year. But last night Miss Roberts’ lawyer,
’ David Boies, vowed that she would not give in, even if offered a bonanza cash settlement.
He said: ‘She wants to achieve justice. I think it’s very important to Virginia Giuffre that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates other victims.’
Mr Boies said there had been ‘no suggestion’ of a settlement discussion at this point. He said that
Miss Roberts had previously ‘reached out’ to Prince Andrew offering to find a settlement to avoid going to court but ‘there was no interest in that at that time’.
‘Whether that has changed or not I think we will have to wait and see,’ the attorney added.
But he stressed: ‘A purely financial settlement is not anything that I think she is interested in.’
The price for Andrew settling with Miss Roberts appears to be high. She will likely demand not just cash, but a grovelling statement and admission of contrition.
Miss Roberts alleges she was recruited as a 16-year-old in Florida by Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
Paedophile Epstein killed himself in 2019, rather than face trial, while last month Maxwell was found guilty of presiding over a scheme recruiting children for sex with Epstein. Miss Roberts – who was not part of the Maxwell case – alleges she was loaned out to Epstein’s wealthy and powerful friends including Prince Andrew.
He strenuously denies all the claims, and says he does not even remember meeting Miss Roberts. The infamous photograph of them together in London in March 2001 where his hand is squeezing the teenager’s bare midriff could have been faked, he has suggested.
After Andrew’s failed bid to have Miss Roberts’ case thrown out, the case moves into the next stage. This includes the prospect of him having to give a ‘deposition’ under oath. On pain of being jailed for perjury if he lied, the prince would submit to a video-taped testimony under questioning.
His answers in the session, which could take place in London, could be used as evidence in the trial.
Mr Boies said: ‘The next step for sure is the taking of evidence, the taking of evidence from Prince Andrew, the taking of evidence from Virginia Giuffre and the taking of evidence from others. There will certainly be additional evidence, which is coming out all the time. People have come forward that had not come forward before to identify seeing Prince Andrew and Virginia together.’
Andrew’s troubles were exacerbated by his car-crash BBC Newsnight interview in 2019.
Mr Boies said: ‘He made a lot of statements in that interview. He’s made a lot of those statements elsewhere. His approach has been deny, deny deny, to blame Virginia, to criticise her, to attack her character, to attack her morals, attack her credibility. And we will see how all that plays out under oath.’
Judge Kaplan has set July 14 as the deadline for depositions.
‘We’ll see how that plays out under oath’