The Observer
36 09.01.22 Focus
Andrew, under siege
in the press as he
awaits a critical court
ruling, is not the fi rst
obnoxious royal.
But he has damaged
‘the Firm’ – and it will
have to change, says
Andrew Anthony
paid $500,000, Giuffre, then using
her maiden name of Roberts, would
“release ... and forever discharge ...
second parties and any other per-
son or entity who could have been
included as a potential defendant ...
from all, and all manner of, action
and actions of Virginia Roberts,
including state or federal, cause and
causes of action”.
Giuffre maintains that in 2001,
when she was 17, she was traffi cked
by Epstein and his sometime girl-
friend Ghislaine Maxwell to have
sex with the prince on three occa-
sions – once in Maxwell’s house
in Belgravia, where the infamous
photograph was taken of her with
the then 42-year-old prince’s hand
around her waist, on the second
occasion at Epstein’s mansion in
New York and fi nally on Epstein’s
private island, Little St James in the
US Virgin Islands , with a group ofother girls. The prince denies all
allegations and says he has no recol-
lection of ever having met Giuffre.
The prince’s lawyers have taken
an aggressive approach to pro-
tecting their client. They fi rst
argued that the court summons
had not been properly served, then
attempted to get the case thrown
out on the grounds that Giuffre
doesn’t live in the US.
Now they are seeking their client’s
salvation with the grim fact that he
qualifi es as a potential defendant
in any sex abuse case connected to
Epstein. In other words, it appears
his possible culpability is being used
as his defence.
Even if this legal loophole works,
and Kaplan dismisses the case, it
will be an outcome that will not
clear the prince’s name, which his
friends insist is his prime aim.
Instead, added to all those lettersthat come after his title, will be a
toxic question mark.
And that’s the best-case scenario
for the prince. If, instead, Kaplan
gives the go-ahead for the case to
be heard, then the prince would
be obliged to make a deposition
and then, in the autumn, appear in
court. He could in theory refuse to
do either, but again the optics would
be disastrous. However, if he did go
to court, the world’s media would be
offered a daily diet of sordid details.
And if he were to lose the case, cour-
tiers suggest he may no longer be
able to travel internationally, for fear
of criminal extradition.
As the royal expert and author
Robert Lacey puts it: “The pros-
pect of Virginia Giuffre’s allega-
tions against a senior member of the
Windsors being aired in court and
reported around the world is just
impossible to contemplate from the
point of view of the royal family, and
I’m quite sure there would be some
settlement out of court.”
Given that Giuffre has waited over
20 years for recognition of the dam-
age that she says was done to her,
that settlement would presuma-
bly involve a large fi nancial fi gure- which raises the question of who
will pay it. The prince has spent the
better part of his adult life cosy-
P
rince Andrew , the
Duke of York, KG,
GCVO, CD, ADC , turns
62 next month. It
is long past the age
at which a man is
expected to stop being a cause of
concern and embarrassment to his
parents. And yet Andrew, who is said
to be the Queen’s favourite child,
has exposed his mother to the great-
est threat to the royal family’s repu-
tation in living memory.
As he awaits the decision of a New
York judge, Lewis Kaplan , in the
sex assault case brought by Virginia
Giuffre, the prince fi nds himself in
the deeply unedifying position of
trying to evade court with a secret
silencing deal struck by his late
friend and convicted sex offender,
Jeffrey Epstein.
The agreement, signed in 2009,
stated that in exchange for beingMonarchy
Royals wait anxiously for the
fallout from prince’s disgrace