Prince Andrew demands jury trial in sex abuse lawsuit — Analysis
In an official submitting, the disgraced royal denies abusing Virginia Giuffre, disavows information of Epstein’s trafficking scheme
The UK’s Prince Andrew has formally denied sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre, considered one of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged trafficking victims, when she was 17. In a brand new courtroom submitting, the British royal denied Giuffre’s allegations, refused to touch upon the “trafficking scheme” run by deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and demanded a trial by jury over Giuffre’s civil go well with.
In accordance with the submitting, submitted to a Manhattan courtroom by the prince’s attorneys on Wednesday, Andrew denies that Giuffre was “lent out for sexual functions” to him by Epstein, and denies committing “sexual assault and battery” upon her, as alleged in a civil grievance by Giuffre first filed final August.
The Duke of York additionally insisted that he “lacks ample info to confess or deny” any information of Epstein’s alleged trafficking and abuse of Giuffre and “numerous kids and younger ladies.”
Later within the submitting, Andrew requires the case to be dismissed on jurisdiction grounds as Giuffre is now a everlasting resident of Australia and never the US, earlier than demanding a trial by jury on all counts contained in Giuffre’s grievance.
The trial, which might see different members of the British royal household referred to as to testify, goes forward regardless of makes an attempt by Andrew’s attorneys to have the case thrown out. Earlier this month, US District Choose Lewis Kaplan rejected an argument by the prince’s authorized staff that the case violated a 2009 settlement reached between Giuffre and Epstein, through which she agreed to not sue anybody who could possibly be a “potential defendant” towards the convicted intercourse offender.
The royal household has not formally commented on the lawsuit bar stating that the prince could be “defending this case as a personal citizen,” however Andrew was stripped of his honorary navy titles and patronages a day after Kaplan’s ruling.
Andrew doesn’t deny his relationship with Epstein, whose loss of life in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on fees of trafficking minors was dominated a suicide. Nonetheless, in his submitting on Wednesday, the Briton denied being a “frequent visitor in Epstein’s varied properties.” He additionally denied being a “shut good friend” of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who was convicted in December for the intercourse trafficking of minors.
The prince additionally declined to confess or deny the existence of {a photograph} of himself together with his arm round Giuffre whereas Maxwell seems to be on from the background, regardless of having been offered with this photograph throughout a BBC interview in 2019.
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