Prince Andrew Asked To Prove His Inability To Sweat By Lawyers
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Prince Andrew has been called upon to provide evidence that he allegedly cannot sweat by Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s lawyers.
Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her in a lawsuit she filed on August 14 under the New York Child Victims Act. On one occasion, she claimed they visit a London nightclub called Tramp, where the Duke of York sweated heavily, before going back to Ghislaine Maxwell’s house, who is the recently convicted former girlfriend of convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Following Prince Andrew’s lawyers attempt to halt proceedings over Giuffre’s eligibility to file a suit against him in a New York federal court because of questions over which country she resides in, Giuffre’s lawyers have since requested that the Prince provide the names of all those at a restaurant he claims he visited that day, documents of his travel between the club and Maxwell’s residence, and a list of any presents he received from Maxwell or Epstein, ‘including but not limited to puppets’.
Within the lawsuit, Giuffre has alleged that she was trafficked by Maxwell and Epstein to meet with the Prince on three separate occasions when she was only 17 years old. According to her lawyer, the claims include ‘improper sexual violations’, and causing Giuffre ‘physical and emotional distress’.
The suit states that Giuffre was ‘forced […] to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will’, and that ‘Prince Andrew touched [Giuffre]’ when she was made to sit on his knee alongside another alleged victim named Johann Sjoberg, in Epstein’s townhouse in New York, The Times reports.
Moreover, Giuffre claimed that the Duke of York received a puppet from Maxwell, which Prince Andrew used to ‘cup [her] breast with’ as she sat on his knee. Sjoberg claimed, ‘They took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.’
Prince Andrew has maintained his innocence, and in reference to the night in question, he told BBC’s Newsnight in 2019 that Giuffre’s claim they attended a nightclub and that he sweated heavily was ‘impossible’ because of him having ‘a peculiar medical condition’ that means he cannot sweat or ‘didn’t sweat at the time’, caused by ‘an overdose of adrenaline in the Falkland’s War when [he] was shot at’.
He alleged that on the night in question, he had actually been at home with his children, and that during the day he had been in Woking, Surrey, at a Pizza Express restaurant with his daughter, Beatrice.
Subsequently, Giuffre’s lawyers have requested that Prince Andrew name ‘all the persons [he] met or encountered at a Pizza Express located in Woking, England’.
However, the Duke of York’s lawyers have since responded by stating that the Prince did not meet anyone at the restaurant, concluding that such a line of inquiry was ‘burdensome’.
Moreover, they noted that the Duke of York ‘denies the allegations that he was at the Tramp nightclub’, and that he objected to such questions around his sweating as being ‘harassing’ and ‘confidential and private information’.
His lawyers also claimed that after a ‘diligent search’ they found that ‘no such documents exist in his possession, custody or control’ in relation to his supposed inability to sweat.
Prince Andrew has been accused of ‘a transparent attempt to delay discovery into his own documents and testimony’ by Giuffre’s lawyers, for alleging that she is actually an Australian resident.
Giuffre’s lawyers stated:
If Prince Andrew truly has no documents concerning . . . 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.
On Tuesday, January 4, the Prince’s lawyers hope to have the case dismissed during a hearing held by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 8am–10pm Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm weekends. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact the Rape Crisis England and Wales helpline on 0808 802 9999 between 12pm–2.30pm and 7pm– 9.30pm every day. Alternatively, you can contact Victim Support free on 08 08 16 89 111 available 24/7, every day of the year, including Christmas
Male Survivors Partnership is available to support adult male survivors of sexual abuse and rape. You can contact the organisation on their website or on their free helpline 0808 800 5005, open 9am–5pm Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays; 8am–8pm Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10am–2pm Saturdays
Topics: News, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts Giuffre
