Prince Andrew Could Face Second Sex Abuse Lawsuit Over Groping Claims Made by Alleged Epstein Victim
12:36 GMT 11.08.2021 (Updated: 15:14 GMT 05.01.2024)
© AP Photo / Michel Euler
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Alleged Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) now wants a judge and jury to hear the evidence against Prince Andrew, as she filed a civil lawsuit in a federal court in Manhattan on Monday, accusing the royal of abusing her on three occasions when she was a minor.
Prince Andrew could be hit with another US lawsuit from an alleged Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse victim, reported The Mirror.
On Monday, legal action was filed in a federal court in Manhattan by Virginia Giuffre, who accuses the royal of sexually abusing her on three occasions when she was under 18. The civil case was brought against the Duke of York days before the expiration date of the Child Victims Act. The New York state law determines the time frame during which individuals can file lawsuits alleging they were sexually abused as children.
Johanna Sjoberg, one of several women to have accused the tycoon Epstein of abuse, has also levelled accusations against the Duke of York.
She claims he groped her breast when she was 21 years old in an incident at Epstein’s New York home, involving a Spitting Image puppet of the royal given to him by Ghislaine Maxwell.
Sjoberg, who says she was recruited by Maxwell in 2001, when she was a student at Palm Beach Atlantic College, to work as Epstein’s personal assistant, has accused the duke of groping her with the puppet.
The woman purports she was jetted to the US by the billionaire to “entertain” the prince sometime in 2001. The abusive encounter is alleged to have taken place in the presence of Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre.
Johanna Sjoberg says Prince Andrew groped her at Jefrey Epstein’s - again its so hard to beleive1 pic.twitter.com/mmkLfOPOrS
— GRAHAM PHEBY (@GPHEBY) January 6, 2015
Sjoberg, 43, was previously unable to sue the royal due to the amount of time that has passed since the reported attack. However, according to the outlet, a pending US law change could allow her to seek justice in court.
Warnings of ‘Default Judgment’
This comes as Prince Andrew risks a “default judgment” if he ignores the civil lawsuit filed against him in the US alleging he sexually abused a minor, a lawyer for the royal’s accuser has warned.
“It would be very ill-advised for Prince Andrew to ignore judicial process… If he does, it will be a default judgment against him that will be, in effect, enforced not only in the United States, but in virtually every civilised country in the world,” David Boies, representing Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) was cited by the BBC as saying.
"I think it would be very ill-advised for Prince Andrew to ignore judicial process."
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) August 10, 2021
Virginia Giuffre's attorney, David Boies, tells #Newsnight if the Duke of York “thumbs his nose at the courts”, there will be a “default judgement against him”
More: https://t.co/tqpITLjenz pic.twitter.com/nTGz7ueEE3
Boies emphasized that he and his client, who currently lives in Australia with her husband and three children, filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew after exhausting all attempts to engage the Prince to resolve the matter outside of a court. Giuffre had "tried every way she can to resolve this short of litigation", said the lawyer.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, center, who says she was trafficked by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court
© AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
Virginia Giuffre - who was an accuser of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein - testified that she was unwillingly “trafficked out” by the late financier to have sex with the British royal three times in 2001, while she was 17.
Prince Andrew has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. In a BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 he claimed he never had sex with Giuffre, saying: "I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened."
The woman, now 38, is seeking compensation for physical and mental damage inflicted upon her, intending to donate money to a charity to help sex-trafficking survivors. She is ostensibly hoping to send a message to rich and powerful men that "you cannot hide behind wealth and power and palace walls" and dodge accountability for your actions.
Boies added that "at this point litigation is the only way to establish once and for all what the truth is - and litigation is the only way to establish once and for all what Prince Andrew's evidence actually is".
“It would be very ill-advised for Prince Andrew to ignore judicial process," said Boies, who represents several of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers besides Giuffre.
Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, arrived in Balmoral, Scotland, with his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, for a holiday with the monarch just hours after a bombshell US civil lawsuit accused him of sex abuse of a minor. He is yet to make any public statement about the lawsuit.
n this Sept. 2, 2000 file photo, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, driven by Britain's Prince Andrew leaves the wedding of a former girlfriend of the prince, Aurelia Cecil, at the Parish Church of St Michael in Compton Chamberlayne near Salisbury, England. The FBI said Thursday July 2, 2020, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was accused by many women of helping procure underage sex partners for Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested in New Hampshire.
© AP Photo / Chris Ison
The embattled permanently nonactive member of the royal family, stepped back from royal duties over blowback from his relationship with the late Epstein. The American financier was accused of creating a criminal network for the sexual exploitation of girls, including minors. The convicted sexual predator was arrested in New York in July, 2019. A month later, he died at a federal Manhattan prison under suspicious circumstances, with his death officially ruled a suicide.
