A lawyer for Virginia Giuffre has stated she is unlikely to simply accept a authorized settlement that doesn’t “maintain Prince Andrew to account” in her sexual assault lawsuit towards the duke.
This week, the Queen’s second son – who’s combating the civil US case as a personal citizen – submitted a 41-point denial of Ms Giuffre’s claims, together with allegations that he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 years previous.
Reportedly sparking some concern at Buckingham Palace, the Duke of York’s attorneys demanded a trial by jury, doubtlessly setting him as much as change into the primary member of the trendy royal household to undergo being cross-examined over severe allegations – within the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee yr.
Nevertheless, some consultants have prompt his shock transfer this week, which included a denial that he was an in depth buddy of the now-convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, might nonetheless preclude a bid to settle.
However Ms Giuffre’s New York lawyer David Boies has repeatedly warned that his shopper is just not excited about a purely monetary settlement.
“What’s necessary for Virginia is to vindicate herself and the opposite victims. To not let somebody escape accountability, simply due to their wealth and energy. To carry Prince Andrew to account. However how that vindication is achieved continues to be open [to discussion],” he advised The Telegraph.
Mr Boies stated he believes Ms Giuffre “can be unlikely to settle in a scenario during which anyone simply handed over a cheque”, including: “So if Prince Andrew maintains, ‘I’ve by no means heard of this individual’, ‘I do not know who she is’, ‘the pictures are faux’ – then I don’t assume that we’d need to choose that foundation.”
He added: “That stated, if you happen to had a settlement that was giant sufficient to be, in impact, a vindication, then it’s one thing we’d clearly take a look at.”
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Described this month by a former federal prosecutor as “the best deposition taker in fashionable American jurisprudence”, Mr Boies stated: “We’re trying ahead to confronting Prince Andrew together with his denials and makes an attempt in charge Ms Giuffre for his personal abuse, each on the deposition and the trial.”
He added: “However an unlucky reality for him is that if you happen to say this stuff while you’re submitting papers, it turns into actually laborious to maintain that below cross-examination. And when you may’t maintain these broad denials, you’re not simply again to floor zero, you’re behind, since you’ve misplaced your credibility.”
The duke advised BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he has “no recollection of ever assembly this woman, none in anyway” and – in his denial of dancing together with his 38-year-old accuser at a London nightclub – claimed to have been left unable to sweat after the Falklands Warfare.
Earlier this month, Manhattan federal court docket decide Lewis Kaplan rejected Prince Andrew’s bid to have Ms Giuffre’s case towards him thrown out.
Media lawyer Mark Stephens has warned {that a} trial, and the authorized proceedings earlier than it might threaten the existence of the monarchy by sparking a “debate in regards to the relevancy and appropriateness of the royal household”.
