Britain’s Prince Andrew has been subpoenaed to face trial after being accused by a woman of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. That reports The Mirror. The prince is due to respond to the allegations by Friday.
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Prince Andrew, 61, is accused by Virginia Giuffre, a 38-year-old mother of three, of raping her when she was “hired” in 2001 by Jeffrey Epstein and his wife Ghislaine Maxwell to keep him company. She was only 17 years old at the time. Andrew has always denied those allegations and has always maintained that he has never seen Giuffre.
The alleged victim filed the complaint against Andrew in New York. The subpoena had to be handed over to Andrew in person by the woman’s team, and US sources say that happened two weeks ago. Since it was not possible to see Andrew, the summons was given to officials of the British royal family at Windsor Palace. That’s good too, according to the documents The Mirror was able to view, and so Andrew has until September 21 to respond.
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for September 13. Then the woman’s lawyers must report whether the prince has received the summons. The indictment says Giuffre accused Andrew of assaulting and deliberately emotionally abusing her after she was forced to have sex with him in London, New York and Epstein’s island in the Caribbean. She is claiming damages of more than £14 million. It could very well be, experts said, that Andrew is hiding behind diplomatic immunity and therefore not going to trial.
The prince is said to have moved into the royal Balmoral estate in Scotland this week. tabloid The Sun concluded that Andrew went into hiding because of the New York lawsuit and nicknamed him “Runaway Prince,” the fleeing prince. A spokesman for the prince declined to comment on the news.
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