Prince Andrew on January 19, 2020 in Hillington, Norfolk (AFP / Lindsey Parnaby)
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Crucial week for Prince Andrew in New York: justice will examine the validity of a civil complaint for “sexual assault” filed by an American against the Briton, in the wake of the sex scandal of his friends Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The complaint was filed in August by Virginia Giuffre, 38, who accuses Queen Elizabeth’s second son, 61, of “sexual assault” three times in 2001, when she was 17.
Facts allegedly committed through the couple formed by the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and her companion and accomplice, the American multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in New York in August 2019 before his own trial for crimes sexual.
Ms. Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of sex trafficking of minors for the benefit of the financier. Virginia Giuffre, who was not a party to the Maxwell trial, welcomed the judgment and said she hoped others “will be held to account”.
Undated photo obtained on December 8, 2021 from the New York justice system, showing Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein (US District Court for the Southern District of New York / Handout)
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His complaint, which seeks damages of an unknown amount, however, has nothing to do with criminal proceedings and Prince Andrew, who has always denied the allegations, is not being prosecuted for sexual crimes or offenses. .
– Andrew directly concerned –
The fate of this complaint, which the prince’s legal advisers are trying by all means to block, could be played out this week.
First Monday during the publication ordered by two judges of the Manhattan federal court – Lewis Kaplan and Loretta Preska – of an agreement sealed in 2009 before the American courts between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre.
Lawyers for the prince have said for months that the deal protects their client and other protagonists from any legal action by Ms Giuffre.
Prince Andrew at the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Bruges, Belgium, September 7, 2019 (AFP / JOHN THYS)
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Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT), a videoconference hearing will be held between Judge Kaplan and lawyers for both parties to determine whether the complaint should be dismissed for this reason.
The judge has already rejected Friday another nullity request made by the Prince and Duke of York, on the grounds that the American could not take legal action in New York because she “resides” in Australia and not in United States.
If all his appeals fail, a civil trial could be held “between September and December” 2022, Judge Kaplan suggested in the fall.
– Absence of “sweating” –
In addition, Giuffre’s lawyers demanded Thursday that Andrew produce a medical certificate attesting that his body cannot sweat, that he is therefore never “sweaty”.
In his last BBC interview in November 2019, deemed calamitous, Andrew denied having danced “sweaty” with Giuffre in a London nightclub more than 20 years ago, as the complainant had recounted.
The prince would suffer from an impossibility of “sweating” since the Falklands War in 1982.
Widely circulated, especially in the United Kingdom, a number of photos attest to the links between Andrew, Epstein, Maxwell and Giuffre. In particular a snapshot from 2000 showing the American financier, the British socialite and the Prince Royal on a hunting party at the Sandringham estate (east of England).
Another photo shows Andrew and Giuffre holding each other at the waist, all smiles, with Maxwell in the background. Andrew has always “categorically” denied the accusations and even expressed doubts about the authenticity of this photo.
But his friendship with Epstein and Maxwell plunged him into turmoil and forced him to retire from public life.
burs-nr/chp
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