By Aaron Miller-
Prince Andrew has challenged his accuser Virginia Giuffre’s right to sue in America, arguing she lives in Australia.
The Duke of York, 61, on Tuesday filed papers in Manhattan asking the case to be halted until the issue has been resolved.
Jurors have spent a few days deliberating the verdict of the sex trafficking case, and have asked the judge for transcripts relating to the case.
Late on Monday, the duke’s lawyers filed a five-page motion , arguing the court’s absence of jurisdiction over Mrs Giuffre’s claims, on the basis of her being a citizen of the US state of Colorado when she actually lives in Perth, Australia, in a £1million home with her husband and children.
They said: ‘In reality, Ms Giuffre’s ties to Colorado are very limited. She has not lived there since at least 2019 – approximately two years before she filed this lawsuit.
‘Prior to filing this action, but well after she returned to Australia, Ms Giuffre registered to vote for the first time in Colorado using her mother’s home address – the timing of Ms Giuffre’s voter registration is suspicious and appears to be a calculated move.’
They added that ‘Prince Andrew respectfully requests’ the court order Mrs Giuffre to submit to a two-hour video link hearing to give evidence about where she lives.
Andrew’s lawyers yesterday urged an American court to rule it has no jurisdiction to hear Virginia Roberts’ sex claims against him. Pictured: Andrew with Roberts (centre) at Ghislaine Maxwell’s (right) townhouse in London, Britain on March 13 2001
The royal attacked Giuffre’s ties to Colorado, claiming she’s “actually domiciled in Australia. In documents filed to the Southern District Court of New York, his U.S lawyers state: “Recently discovered evidence suggests that the Court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over this action because Plaintiff Virginia L. Giuffre cannot satisfy the elements of diversity jurisdiction.
“Notwithstanding that, in her complaint, Ms Giuffre alleges she is a citizen of the State of Colorado, the evidence demonstrates that she is actually domiciled in Australia, where she has lived for all but two of the past nineteen years.
“It is undisputed that, at the time she filed this action, Ms Giuffre had an Australian driver’s license and was living in a AU$1.9 million (£1 million) home in Perth, Western Australia, where she and her husband have been raising their three children.
“She has not lived there since at least 2019 – approximately two years before she filed this lawsuit against Prince Andrew – and potentially, according to her own deposition testimony, not since October 2015.
“Despite having moved to Australia in 2019 or earlier, it appears that Ms Giuffre only recently registered to vote in Colorado using her mother and stepfather’s mailing address there.
“In light of the apparent lack of diversity jurisdiction, Prince Andrew respectfully requests that the court order Ms Giuffre to respond to targeted written discovery requests pertaining to her domicile and submit to a two-hour remote deposition limited to the issue of her domicile.”
Giuffre, now 38, has used New York’s Child Victims Act (CVA) that allowed those abused to sue their attackers.
Motion
The motion states that although “Ms. Giuffre alleges she is a citizen of the State of Colorado, the evidence demonstrates that she is actually domiciled in Australia, where she has lived for all but two of the past nineteen years”.
It claims she has “spent less than two years living in the United States since moving to Australia in 2002” allegedly , rendering her complaint invalid.
Ms Guiffre is seeking unspecified damages from Prince Andrew, alleging he sexually abused her on three separate occasions in 2001 when she was 17.
Giuffre claims she was trafficked to London where she was forced to sleep with the Duke while she was a ‘teen sex slave’ of his then friend, Epstein.
In 2019, New York lawmakers introduced a “look-back window” in the Child Victims Act that raised the deadline to 55 years of age, giving victims of decades-old abuse two years to file civil claims by August 14, 2021.
Mum-of-three Giuffre filed the lawsuit on August 9, just five days before the window closed.
In her lawsuit she says of the royal: “Prince Andrew’s actions constitute sexual offences as defined in New York Penal Law Article 130, including but not limited to sexual misconduct as defined in Article 130.20, rape in the third degree as defined in Article 130.25, rape in the first degree as defined in Article 130.35.”
The move is the latest attempt by Andrew to have Giuffre’s case against him dismissed.
Earlier this month, the Duke launched an aggressive legal bid to have the sex abuse lawsuit thrown out calling it “unintelligible” and deliberately vague.
The royal said the case should be dismissed, arguing the law that allowed her to sue in America was “unconstitutional”.
His legal team argued he is prevented from being sued under a 2009 financial deal Giuffre made with Jeffrey Epstein, which barred her from pursuing the financier’s associates.
In an 11-page document, Andrew attacked Giuffre’s claims he raped and sexual abuse her after she was forced to sleep with him by the billionaire paedophile.
The Duke has “absolutely and categorically” denied her allegations.
Epstein committed suicide in August 2019 while in jail. He was arrested a month earlier and charged with child sex offences.