Prince Andrew ‘Knew His Sex Abuse Accuser Was Being Trafficked’, Court Hears
Published
Prince Andrew was aware that his sex-abuse accuser had been trafficked to him, newly-released court documents claim.
The Duke of York had placed a motion in New York last week to dismiss the civil case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, which alleges he sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was just 17.
Now, reports have emerged that in a transcript from the hearing, the royal’s lawyer Andrew Brettler is reported to have told the judge: ‘She contends that Prince Andrew was aware that she was being trafficked.’
He added: ‘She claims that she was trafficked to a bunch of different categories of individuals, including royalty, academia, businessmen. Those individuals would be part of the same enterprise.
‘It wasn’t as if she is alleging that this was some secret trafficking arrangement,’ Brettler said, The Sun reports.
Central to the Duke’s grounds for dismissal is the fact that Giuffre, now 38, had signed a legal deal back in 2009 agreeing not to pursue claims against any of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators.
Judge Lewis Kaplan who presided over the hearing said he would rule on the motion ‘soon’.
Prince Andrew has denied all charges so far but scrutiny has tightened on him ever since disgraced millionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell was jailed for sex trafficking at the end of last year.
With reports that he could lose his royal titles should he lose the high profile sex abuse case, the 62-year-old has also allegedly been looking into selling his luxury Swiss Ski Chalet in order to fund his court fees.
The Queen has publicly stayed out of the ongoing furore over her son, but it’s believed she won’t be funding his legal case, and so Andrew is apparently looking to sell his Verbier chalet, Chalet Helora, for £17 million in a bid to do so.
The seven-bedroom ski chalet is currently joint owned by the royal and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. They had agreed to sell it last September, however the deal has not yet gone through. Prince Andrew is now said to ‘urgently’ want to get rid of the property.
Giuffre has claimed that she was sex trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to meet with the Duke of York on three separate occasions to have sex when she was 17. The alleged abuse is said to have taken place in London, New York and the Virgin Islands.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
