Giuffre’s lawyers have filed the civil lawsuit in a federal court in Manhattan.
In a statement, Giuffre said the lawsuit concerned child sexual abuse because she was allegedly sold to the British prince and abused by him when she was 17 years old.
– I hold Prince Andrew responsible for what he did to me. The powerful and the rich are not exempt from responsibility for their actions. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but to take life back by speaking out and demanding justice, the statement said.
Andrew rejects
The 61-year-old Prince Andrew has denied having a sexual relationship with Virginia Giuffre, who claims that Epstein paid her to have sex with the prince.
In November 2019, Andrew added BBC Newsnight that he does not remember meeting Giuffre and that there were “several things wrong” about her account of a 2001 meeting.
“I can absolutely categorically tell you that it never happened,” said Andrew.
According to the lawsuit, the prince allegedly raped Giuffre several times while she was under 18 years old.
Prince Andrew’s spokesmen have so far not commented on the lawsuit, according to the news agency Reuters.
Claims it happened in London
Giuffre has previously claimed that Ghislaine Maxwell, former partner of the late Jeffrey Epstein, arranged sex meetings for her with Prince Andrew in her house in London. Giuffre has also claimed that she was pressured to have sex with Epstein and Maxwell at the same time.
Epstein was found dead in a prison cell in New York in August 2019. He had several powerful and famous friends in the United States and Britain, and was charged with human trafficking and abuse of several young girls and women.
He denied the charges, but risked 45 years in prison if convicted.
Maxwell is currently imprisoned in New York. She is accused of having helped Epstein recruit and abuse young girls, but the 59-year-old denies criminal guilt in the case that will go to court in November.
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