Prince Andrew has been accused of “victim shaming” his accuser in the sex abuse civil lawsuit he is currently facing. After the Duke of York’s defence branded Virginia Giuffre a money-hungry liar stirring up a “media frenzy” to “achieve another payday” in a court motion cited by the Daily Mail, swift and relentless backlash was triggered from outraged women's groups and campaigners.
“The Duke of York seems to be living in the 1950s when abused women were often described as gold diggers. Accusing a known victim of sexual exploitation of being motivated by money is about as low as you can get. It is victim shaming and further evidence of his appalling judgment. Andrew is just dragging his reputation further into the gutter,” Joan Smith, former co-chairwoman of the Mayor of London's Violence Against Women group was cited as saying.
Karen Ingala Smith, chief executive of London-based charity NIA, working with women and children who experience sexual violence, similarly fumed against the royal.
“His lack of empathy and contempt for the victim-survivors of sexual violence is deplorable. It is grossly dishonest to claim on one hand that sexual violence is abhorrent and then on the other to brand those seeking legal redress as frivolous money grabbers,” said Smith.
‘Baseless Lawsuit’
Virginia Guiffre, 38, filed a civil lawsuit against the Duke of York in September, alleging she had been trafficked out for sex by the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epsteinwhen she was 17 and below the legal age of consent under New York law. According to the woman, she was forced to engage in intimate relations with the Queen’s son on three occasions: at the London townhouse of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's alleged “pimp”, in early 2001 at Epstein's New York mansion, and on the tycoon's private island in the Caribbean.
Jeffrey Epstein Associate
© AP Photo / John Minchillo
Maxwell is currently in jail, charged with grooming and sex trafficking girls for the financier. The formal allegations against Prince Andrew are “battery and infliction of emotional distress”. On 29 October, in his court motion to dismiss the case against Prince Andrew, the royal’s lawyer Andrew Brettler was cited as saying:
“For over a decade Giuffre has profited from her allegations. Most people could only dream of obtaining the sums of money that Giuffre has secured for herself over the years. This presents a compelling motive for Giuffre to continue filing frivolous lawsuits against individuals such as Prince Andrew whose sullied reputation is only the latest collateral damage of the Epstein scandal.”
Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 after being charged with multiple child sex offences, with his death officially ruled a suicide.
Brettler, acting in line with the court-imposed deadline to respond to Giuffre's suit – added that Giuffre had initiated a “baseless lawsuit” against Prince Andrew to “achieve another payday at his expense and at the expense of those closest to him.”
According to Prince Andrew, Guiffre had been intentionally stoking a “media frenzy” allowing “sensationalism and innuendo” to “prevail over truth.” The defence team had also made reference to a 2015 report published in the New York Daily News that claimed “Giuffre also was trained to and did, in fact, recruit other young women into Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.” “She was like head b****,” a source had been cited as saying in the outlet’s report.
In this Aug. 27, 2019, photo, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, center, 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
Attorneys for Prince Andrew filed a court motion that Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit be dismissed as also violating the terms of a settlement agreement she concluded in 2009 with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, where she conceded to a "general release" of claims. Virginia Guiffre’s legal team, who agreed earlier to share the Epstein settlement agreement with the royal’s defence, insisted it would be “irrelevant to the case”.
Furthermore, in an added twist to the case, Prince Andrew's 2019 BBC Newsnight interview will reportedly be used in the civil lawsuit against him, according to Guiffre’s lawyer Sigrid McCawley, cited by The Telegraph.
McCawley claimed the “shocking” interview was “very helpful” and her team was examining it for “inconsistencies.” Furthermore, McCawley reportedly planned to subpoena the Duke of York’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and daughters Beatrice and Eugenie to question his alibi that he was in Pizza Express in Woking on the day in 2001 when Giuffre claims she was first forced to have sex with him.
Princess Beatrice (C) poses for photograph with her parents, Britain's Prince Andrew, the Duke York (L) and Sarah Ferguson following her graduation
© AFP 2023 / IAN NICHOLSON
Prince Andrew had dismissed all allegations against him in the November 2019 “car crash” BBC interview, denying Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s claims and insisting he had “no recollection” of ever meeting the woman. The royal, who has since permanently resigned from all public roles over fallout from the Epstein scandal, suggested that an existing photo showing the two of them together might have been “doctored”.
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
Earlier this week, US Judge Lewis A. Kaplan set a deadline of mid-July 2022 for the submission of all evidence in the civil sex assault case, including a potential deposition from the Duke of York.