US judge allows Epstein defendant to sue Prince Andrew

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A New York judge has ruled against a civil lawsuit accusing Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting one of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers, threatening further embarrassment and legal consequences for the Duke of York.

Prince Andrew’s lawyers have argued that their client is covered by a confidential 2009 settlement between Epstein and Virginia Roberts Joffrey, who claims she was trafficked to Prince Andrew for sex on three occasions when she was under 18. It has been denied.

Under the terms of that settlement, which has since been made public, Roberts received $500,000 in exchange for dropping all claims against Epstein as well as “any other person or entity that could have been listed as a potential defendant.”

But in an opinion issued on Wednesday, Judge Lewis Kaplan found the language in the settlement was too vague to excuse Prince Andrew and denied his request to dismiss the case.

The verdict is another indication of the devastation Epstein can still inflict on his former friends and colleagues two and a half years after he was found hanged in a New York prison cell in 2019 after being accused of trafficking underage girls for sexual purposes. abuse.

A New York jury last month indicted Ghislaine Maxwell, a former confidant of Epstein and friend of Prince Andrew, on five criminal charges for her role in the recruitment of girls who were assaulted by his late sexual predator.

That conviction has now been called into question after a juror later revealed that he was the victim of sexual assault. Maxwell’s lawyers asked the judge for a new trial. Prosecutors, in turn, offered to drop two separate perjury charges if found guilty. The former British socialite, 60, faces up to 65 years in prison.

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Prince Andrew’s royal career has already been shattered by his friendship with Epstein. In 2019, he announced that he was stepping back from his duties after a disastrous interview with the BBC, in which he struggled to explain his relationship to the former offender.

Geoffrey was among Epstein’s first victims to get her story public. She is pictured with Prince Andrew’s arm wrapped around her waist as Maxwell waves in the background. She did not testify at Maxwell’s trial but was referred repeatedly during the proceedings.

Geoffrey met Maxwell when he was 16 years old working as a host at former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. She alleges that Epstein and Maxwell sexually assaulted her and pressured her into having sex with other men.

She filed a lawsuit against Prince Andrew last August, saying she was “holding [him] responsible for what he did to me.” The prince denied in public interviews anything to say he had met her.

Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington

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