Duke could face more accusers in court case
New evidence linking Prince Andrew to his alleged rape victim is expected to emerge
New evidence that links the Duke of York with his alleged abuse victim is set to emerge after other women indicated that they were prepared to testify. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, filed a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of “first degree rape”. Her lawyer, David Boies, said his team will present fresh testimony throwing doubt on the Duke’s account. Mr Boies was referring to Johanna Sjoberg, the other accuser to allege sexual contact with the Duke.
‘You’re not going to find anybody who was present in the room when they [are alleged to have] had sex’
NEW evidence that links the Duke of York with his alleged victim is set to emerge after other women indicated that they were prepared to testify against him, it has been claimed.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender, filed a lawsuit in New York this week accusing Prince Andrew of “rape in the first degree”.
Her lawyer, David Boies, said that his team was preparing to present fresh testimony that would throw further doubt on the Duke’s account.
“You will see additional evidence,” he said. “You’ve heard testimony about other girls who saw Andrew with Virginia, and there will be additional testimony about that from the same woman, but from some other women, too.”
Mr Boies was referring to Johanna Sjoberg, the only other accuser to have come forward publicly to allege sexual contact with the Duke.
Ms Sjoberg, 41, accused him of groping her by taking a Spitting Image puppet of himself and placing its hand on her breast in London in 2001.
Prince Andrew’s spokesman declined to comment on the claim.
The Duke, 61, is at Balmoral with the Queen, having left for Scotland with his former wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, on Tuesday, hours before a US summons was approved by a court clerk and sent to Royal Lodge, his Windsor home.
He is said to have 21 days to respond or face “judgment by default”.
Ms Giuffre has not put a figure on the compensation she is seeking for “significant emotional and psychological harm”, but is asking for both compensatory and punitive damages.
Mr Boies said: “Both categories will be substantial. A person’s declared wealth does come into consideration with respect to punitive damages.”
Albert D’aquino, a New York lawyer, said that although punitive damages were discretionary for a jury, they were generally limited to no more than 20 to 25 per cent of a defendant’s net worth, and were “more typically less than that”.
David Mcclure, a royal finances expert and author of The Queen’s True
Worth, said his finances were “shrouded in a pea-soup fog of impenetrability”.
He added: “Judging by the fact that the Queen is known to bankroll less well-off members of her family, it’s logical to assume that if he was short of funds and had a big outlay in terms of legal bills that she would help.”
The Duke’s legal team has been locked in discussions about how to deal with the lawsuit and has so far refused to comment publicly.
A lawyer suggested that the team would want to delay proceedings until they knew the outcome of a civil case brought by Ms Giuffre brought against Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer whom she has accused of sexual assault, as well as the criminal trial of the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, on sex trafficking charges.
The lawyer said: “They will want to see how the Dershowitz case goes to establish whether Ms Giuffre is deemed a credible witness.”
Mr Boies said: “They could be stalling but delay does not help him, because nothing that’s going to happen in either the Maxwell or Dershowitz case is going to help him. The more that is exposed, the more information we find out. Time is not on their side.”
Ms Giuffre has alleged she was trafficked to the Duke and sexually abused on three separate occasions when she was 17 in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands. The Duke has said he has no recollection of meeting Ms Giuffre, now 38, and denies sleeping with her.
“You’re not going to find anybody who was present in the room when they [are alleged to have] had sex,” Mr Boies said. “What you will have is more evidence that refutes his assertion that he never knew her, or as his most modification has it, that he doesn’t recall meeting her. He’s going to have a very difficult time when his deposition is taken, because now he’s got to answer questions under oath, subject to crossexamination and there will be lots of difficult questions.”
Mr Boies, 80, a litigator known for his successful prosecution of Microsoft, said his team had tried to make contact with the Duke’s representatives for five years, but never received a reply.