By Sheila Mckenzie_
Prince Andrew plans to use a sealed document he is to receive from his accuser’s legal team to show that damages paid to him by Epstein included a legally binding agreement for her not to pursue any law suits against him.
A U.S judge gave permission for the agreement between Ms Giuffre and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be shared with the prince’s lawyers.
Ms Giuffre’s lawyers believe it will be “irrelevant” to Prince Andrew’s case, and have agreed to hand over the document.
In late December 2014, Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleged in court filings that she had been recruited by Epstein’s longtime companion, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, for a job as a traveling masseuse for Epstein. She went on to claim that she’d been directed by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with Prince Andrew on two occasions when she was 17, and on a third occasion when she’d just turned 18.
The legal claim alleges that Giuffre “was compelled by express or implied threats by Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell, and/or Prince Andrew, to engage in sexual acts with Prince Andrew, and feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth and authority”
The lawsuit further claims that Andrew knew she was a sex-trafficking victim, and that she has suffered – and continues to suffer – “significant emotional and psychological distress and harm”.
Also included in her court filings, is a photograph, now widely disseminated, of Prince Andrew with his arm around her waist, while Maxwell smiled in the background. That photo first surfaced in a 2011 Daily Mail story.
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During the first pre-trial hearing of the case last month, Prince Andrew’s lawyer said the agreement “releases the duke and others from any and all potential liability”.
The prince’s lawyers have said in court that Ms Giuffre agreed in 2009 not to sue anyone else connected to Epstein when she settled her damages claim against the billionaire sex offender, who died in prison in 2019.
In a court document filed on Wednesday, US Judge Loretta Preska agreed to a request from Ms Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, to provide the duke’s legal team with the document.
Giuffre also alleged she’d been directed by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with multiple prominent men, including the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz
Mr Boies previously said about the document: “Although we believe that the release is irrelevant to the case against Prince Andrew, now that service has been accepted and the case is proceeding to a determination on the merits, we believe that counsel for Prince Andrew have a right to review the release and to make whatever arguments they believe appropriate based on it.”
Then known as Virginia Roberts, Ms Guiffre claims she was assaulted by the prince at the London home of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and at Epstein’s homes in Manhattan and Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands.
On July 6, Epstein was arrested by federal authorities at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey just as his private jet landed upon his return from France. He was charged in a two-count indictment with child sex trafficking and conspiracy for alleged crimes occurring in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. The charges did not relate directly to Giuffre’s allegations. Epstein was denied bail and subsequently died in August, apparently by suicide.
Her case claims Prince Andrew engaged in sexual acts without Ms Giuffre’s consent, including when she was 17, knowing how old she was, and “that she was a sex-trafficking victim”.
The prince has consistently denied the claims and, in 2019, told BBC Two’s Newsnight programme: “It didn’t happen.”
In 2020, he told a BBC programme he did not recollect ever meeting Ms Giuffre, before a photograph emerged of him with the young lady.
His reputation plummeted following the interview, cancelling future appearances he had on behalf of the royal family.
Prince Andrew acknowledged that he had “let the side down, simple as that” by staying in Epstein’s New York mansion , knowing fully well about his convictions .