Prince Andrew, Duke of York, has been served with a sexual assault lawsuit filed in opposition to him by considered one of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers, based on New York federal court docket information.
Andrew is being sued within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York by Virginia Giuffre, 38, who alleges the duke sexually abused her on a number of events in New York, London, and on Epstein’s non-public island within the US Virgin Islands between 2000 and 2002 when she was underneath the age of 18.
The duke has repeatedly denied having intercourse with Giuffre, most notably in a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview wherein he tried to defend himself, claiming to have by no means met her. Shortly after the interview aired, Andrew announced that he was “stepping again” from royal public duties.
The affidavit of service filed Friday states {that a} member of Andrew’s safety staff formally obtained discover of the lawsuit in opposition to him at his residence, Royal Lodge on the grounds of Windsor Fort, on Aug. 27.
Within the affidavit, Cesar Augusto Sepulveda stated that it took him two days to ship the paperwork as a result of on his first try on Aug. 26, Andrew’s safety staff advised him that that they had been instructed to not settle for service of any court docket course of or “permit anybody attending there for the aim of serving court docket course of onto the grounds of the property.”
When he returned the following day, Sepulveda met with Andrew’s head of safety, who advised him he might depart the paperwork with one of many Royal Lodge guards and they might be forwarded to the duke’s authorized staff. The top of safety refused to permit Sepulveda to serve Andrew in particular person.
The paperwork listing London-based prison protection legal professional Gary Bloxsome because the duke’s lawyer. BuzzFeed Information reached out to Bloxsome for touch upon the affidavit of service and the doc’s declare that his safety staff had been instructed to not obtain court docket paperwork. He didn’t reply.
Nevertheless, based on ABC News, Bloxsome reportedly questioned the legality of the service and referred to as Giuffre’s authorized staff’s actions “regrettable” in a letter obtained by the community. Within the doc, which ABC Information stated was despatched by Bloxsome to British judicial official senior grasp Barbara Fontaine on Sept. 6, the lawyer claimed that the best way wherein the lawsuit was served makes the service invalid underneath British regulation.
“Absent being glad of some excellent cause to take action, our consumer is very unlikely to be ready to comply with any type of different service whereas the strategy to service of those proceedings stays irregular and the viability of the declare stays open to doubt,” Bloxsome reportedly wrote.
The primary pretrial convention will happen nearly through phone on Monday. It’s unclear whether or not legal professionals representing Andrew will take part in any respect, as no paperwork have been filed in federal court docket in his protection.
Giuffre was considered one of many women to accuse Andrew’s longtime affiliate, Epstein, of underage sexual abuse.
Epstein, a outstanding financier, killed himself in a federal detention heart on Aug. 10, 2019, whereas dealing with prices of sexually trafficking and abusing dozens of underage ladies, some as younger as 14.
In her grievance in opposition to Andrew, filed on Aug. 9, Giuffre claimed that she was “compelled by specific or implied threats” by Epstein, his then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and Andrew himself to have intercourse with the duke. The grievance included an image of 17-year-old Giuffre, then Virginia Roberts, and Andrew, who has his arm round her waist.
Andrew, the grievance states, sexually abused her “realizing that she was a sex-trafficking sufferer being compelled to interact in sexual acts with him.”
In an announcement offered to BuzzFeed Information on the day of the lawsuit’s submitting, Giuffre stated she was lastly “holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me.”
