Prince Andrew's Bid to Portray Accuser as 'Money-Hungry Sex Kitten' Dismissed as PR Stunt by Judge
16:06 GMT 18.12.2021 (Updated: 15:17 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Steve Parsons
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Jeffrey Epstein alleged sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre claims she was forced into intimate relations with Prince Andrew on three separate occasions when she was a minor under US laws. The allegations have been denied by the Duke of York, who has since been forced to give up official duties over his links to the late convicted paedophile.
Prince Andrew’s legal team has failed to have newspaper cuttings describing his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, as a "money-hungry sex kitten" taken into account as part of an effort to throw out her abuse complaint against the royal, reported The Daily Telegraph.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the request to consider the press reports, as well as a 139-page manuscript, The Billionaire's Playboy Club, written by Giuffre.
“There is no proper basis at all for taking judicial notice of the newspaper articles or the alleged manuscript, which appear to have been submitted for whatever public relations purposes [the] defendant’s advisers may have had in mind,” stated the judge.
However, he agreed to take into account a settlement deal made between Giuffre (nee Roberts) and the late tycoon Jeffrey Epstein in 2009. The Duke of York’s defence team has argued it contains a release that invalidates her claim against him.
In this Aug. 27, 2019, photo, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says she was trafficked by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court where sexual assault claimants invited by a judge addressed a hearing following Epstein's jailhouse death in New York
© AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
Virginia Guiffre, 38, filed a civil lawsuit against the embattled Duke of York in September, alleging she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the Queen’s son on three occasions when she was 17 – a minor according to US law. The first time was purportedly at the London townhouse of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's alleged madam, or “pimp." Maxwell is currently on trial in New York, charged with grooming and sex trafficking girls for the financier.
The second time, in early 2001, was supposedly at Epstein's New York mansion, and the third time was on the tycoon's private island in the Caribbean. Giuffre is seeking unspecified damages.
The Duke’s lawyers have been striving to have the “baseless” civil action dismissed, arguing that “sensationalism and innuendo have prevailed over the truth."
In October, the lawyers submitted a rebuttal of the Guiffre complaint, while attaching as evidence several media reports and the accuser’s manuscript depicting her time spent with Epstein.
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Giuffre was branded a “money-hungry sex kitten” in one US newspaper report based on alleged former friends suggesting she had revelled in the “high life” and bragged about the money she made.
A story published in the New York Daily News in 2015 claimed “Giuffre also was trained to and did, in fact, recruit other young women into Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.” Also attached was an interview with the accuser’s ex-boyfriend, Philip Guderyon, who purportedly drove her to Epstein's Palm Beach mansion.
“She was like the head b****. She'd have like nine or 10 girls she used to bring to him. She never looked like she was being held captive,” he was quoted as saying.
The 2011 interview Giuffre gave the Mail on Sunday had also been submitted as evidence, including the photograph of her with the Duke that the embattled royal insisted is doctored. Prince Andrew claims he can't remember meeting the woman.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell. This photo was included in an affidavit in which Giuffre alleged that she was directed to have sex with Andrew
© Photo : Florida Southern District Court
In their filing to have the suit dismissed, the royal’s defence led by Andrew Brettler accused Giuffre of profiting off her claims of abuse by "selling stories and photographs to the press" and entering into "secret agreements" to settle claims against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend.
They also pointed to the undisclosed sum that the woman received through a settlement with the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund (EVFF)
Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers had argued against the 2009 settlement deal being considered as evidence in court, claiming it was “irrelevant” as the Duke was not a party to those legal proceedings and was therefore not covered by the release.
Judge Kaplan is set to hear arguments on Prince Andrew’s motion to dismiss the sex abuse case against him on 4 January.
