NOWHERE TO HIDE FOR ANDREW
After he is accused of ‘ducking and diving’, bombshell for duke as High Court says it will serve U.S. sex assault case on him
PRINCE Andrew was left with nowhere to hide last night after the High Court said it will serve a US sex assault claim on him.
After being accused of ‘ducking, diving and hiding’ this week, the Duke of York now ‘cannot refuse’ to engage with a bombshell civil case filed by his long-term accuser, Virginia Roberts.
At a hearing in New York this week, Andrew’s legal team told a judge they had brought the High Court in London in to the case, claiming the paperwork, which was left with a policeman at Royal Lodge, the duke’s Windsor home, had not been properly served upon them.
Legal experts said the move was a stalling tactic but the strategy seemed to backfire yesterday when the High Court ruled that it would in fact intervene – and formally notify the duke about the case. Andrew’s legal team this week branded the civil claim for damages, which accuses him of rape, sexual assault and battery, as ‘baseless, non-viable and potentially unlawful’. He has always denied Miss Roberts’ allegations.
But after representations from her counsel, the court said in a statement yesterday: ‘The High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague service convention [an international legal agreement].
‘The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the convention unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.’
Miss Roberts’ Manhattan lawyer David Boies said last night: ‘We are hopeful that Prince Andrew will now stop trying to evade and delay facing his accuser in court.
‘The bottom line is Andrew is being served. That is the substance of what the High Court says. He cannot refuse.’
Sigrid McCawley, managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, added: ‘The case we filed in the United States against Prince Andrew will continue to move forward.
‘The ruling by the High Court signals its agreement that the requirements for service have been satisfied. And importantly, by directing service, the High Court is putting its own independent, indisputable legal muscle to work in serving Prince Andrew.’
The duke was seen on the Balmoral estate after having lunch with the Queen yesterday. The development is embarrassing for him after his lawyer argued at the hearing in New York that the next step should be for the High Court to make a ruling on service. Sources close to the prince’s camp had insisted he did not intend to even be represented at Monday’s pre-trial hearing.
But with four hours to go, it emerged the royal had appointed counsel in the US, Hollywoodbased Andrew Brettler, who has represented a string of celebrities accused of sexual misdemeanours.
Mr Brettler said the Senior Master of the High Court, Barbara Fontaine, needed to mediate under the terms of the Hague convention and he did not know ‘how long it will take’. Judge Lewis Kaplan, however, said that Mr Brettler was ‘making this a lot more complicated than it really is’ and that Andrew could be served under US law without involving the British courts.
The papers were served on August 27, Mr Boies told judge Kaplan, having been ‘delivered to the last known address of the defendant’ and emailed to lawyers known to act for the duke.
The next hearing is on October 13 and it is thought the High Court will not get involved before that date, and only then if the two sides fail to agree the case has been served.
A ratified serving of the papers is ‘when the clock begins to tick’ and
‘Not a good look for him’
the duke has 21 days to file a response to the claims, Mr Boies said.
Lisa Bloom, a New York attorney who represents Epstein victims, said this week: ‘Prince Andrew is trying to dodge and hide and duck service, which is not a good look for him.’
She added: ‘Wealthy people typically have guard gates and walls and they can get on their plane and go away. They can try to evade service and they often do, but it doesn’t work for ever.’
In the civil lawsuit filed last month in the New York federal court, Miss Roberts repeated claims she has made publicly about the prince, claiming Andrew abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was 17. At a time when she was a ‘sex slave’ for billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, she claims she was lent to the prince, a friend of Epstein, for sex in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands.
In 2019 Andrew told a BBC Newsnight interview that he had not had sex with Miss Roberts. ‘I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,’ he added. He has also denied any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal behaviour.
The duke’s team are likely to try to have the case thrown out by arguing the New York court has no jurisdiction to hear it, according to paperwork filed in the US.
A spokesman for Andrew declined to comment last night.