The Sunday Times February 6, 2022 2GN K1 11NEWS
Andrew throws the legal dice with
bid to cast Giuffre as a sex trafficker
defence team. Giuffre, now 38, who is
also known by her maiden name, Virginia
Roberts, is seeking millions of pounds in
damages from Andrew after accusing
him of teenage rape and sexual assault in
a civil lawsuit filed in New York.
She claims that he abused her on three
occasions in 2001: the incident at Max-
well’s mews house in Belgravia, central
London; at Epstein’s mansion in New
York; and on the late paedophile finan-
cier’s private Caribbean island.
The duke denies the allegations and
has sought to get Giuffre’s case thrown
out of court on a string of technicalities.
If it ends up going to a jury trial later
this year, his lawyers will try to argue that
Giuffre does not deserve damages
because she was complicit in a “criminal
enterprise”, the so-called “unclean
hands” defence.
In court papers filed at the end of last
month, they stated: “Giuffre’s alleged
causes of action are barred in whole or in
part by her own wrongful conduct and
the doctrine of unclean hands.”
The decision to seek a deposition from
Andriano is likely to form a key plank of
this strategy. If she refuses to co-operate,
she could be held in contempt of court
and fined or even jailed.
Now aged 35 and living in Florida,
Andriano was one of four accusers who
helped to convict Maxwell on fivecharges linked to child sex trafficking at a
trial in New York in December. The
British socialite faces up to 65 years in
prison, but has demanded a retrial fol-
lowing claims a juror failed to declare in
advance that he had been abused.
The jury believed Andriano’s moving
evidence despite a history of drug and
alcohol addiction and mental health
problems. Testifying under her first
name, “Carolyn”, she revealed in court
that she first met Maxwell and Epstein at
their Palm Beach villa in 2001 after Giuf-Prince Andrew plans to obtain sworn
testimony from a victim of Ghislaine
Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein in a high-risk
gamble to cast his accuser, Virginia
Giuffre, as a key member of the couple’s
child sex-trafficking ring.
Lawyers for the Duke of York are seek-
ing evidence from Carolyn Andriano,
who says she was recruited by Giuffre at
14 and trained to give sexual massages.
The proposal to question Andriano
under oath could, however, backfire
badly because she recently corroborated
claims that Giuffre had sex with Andrew
at Maxwell’s London home when she was- “It’s potentially a double-edged
sword,” said a source familiar with the
duke’s strategy.
Andrew’s lawyers are searching for
other women who may have been
recruited by Giuffre while they were
under age. “We are interested in speaking
with and interviewing anyone and every-
one who has information relevant to
these allegations,” the source said.
This weekend it emerged that Andrew,
61, has agreed to be questioned by Giuf-
fre’s lawyers in London on March 10.
However, Giuffre, who lives in Austra-
lia, has yet to agree to a date when she can
be interviewed under oath by the duke’s
Dipesh Gadher
Home Affairs CorrespondentDuke wants to take evidence from a teenage abuse victim in attempt to prove his accuser conspired with Epstein and Maxwell
‘Whatever you do, don’t say your age.’
And I didn’t even ask why. I went along
with it.”
The girls gave Epstein a nude massage
and Giuffre had sex with him, according
to Andriano. “I didn’t know what to do or
say, or where to go, so I sat on the couch
and watched until it was finished. We
walked back downstairs and Maxwell
asked, ‘How did everything go?’
“Virginia gave her a look to say it was a
great session and that’s when Maxwell
asked me for my telephone number.”
Andriano was also given $300 for her
time. Over the next four years, she said
she returned to the villa about a hundred
times and was repeatedly abused by
Epstein.
“I don’t think Virginia deserves any-
thing less than what Maxwell is getting
because she trafficked me into a world of
spiralling downward slopes and it has
taken my husband, John, 12 long years to
get me to love myself again,” Andriano
told the Mail.
However, in the same interview she
disclosed that Giuffre texted her from
London in March 2001 to tell her that she
had been invited to dinner with Prince
Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein.
A few days later, on her return to Flor-
ida, Andriano says Giuffre showed her a
copy of the infamous photograph featur-
ing the duke with his arm around theteenager’s waist and Maxwell in the back-
ground.
“I asked her if she’d been to the pal-
ace,” Andriano said. “And she said ‘I got
to sleep with him’. I said ‘What? You’re
f***ing with me’, and she said, ‘No, I got
to sleep with him’. She didn’t seem upset
about it. She thought it was pretty cool.”
If Andriano repeats this story under
oath, it could seriously undermine
Andrew’s case. He maintains that he has
no recollection of meeting Giuffre. His
lawyers, however, might seek to argue
that Giuffre’s comments to Andriano
about having sex with the prince were
merely a boast and impossible to prove.
As part of the pretrial discovery proc-
ess, Andrew has requested a copy of the
original photo in which he is featured
alongside Giuffre. However, her lawyers
have failed to produce it so far. The duke
has suggested in the past that the image
might have been faked.
Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, has pre-
viously stated: “Virginia has said for years
that her role in facilitating other young
women’s involvement is something that
she has always regretted. But that fact
doesn’t have anything to do with the
truth of her allegations [against Prince
Andrew].”
A spokeswoman for the duke declined
to comment.
@DipeshGadherfre, then her friend, asked if she would
like to “go and make some money”.
Last month Andriano waived her right
to anonymity to continue the story in
more detail in an interview with the Daily
Mail.
“At 14 years old, I was big-breasted and
I definitely could pass for 21 when I was
made up,” she recalled. “I did my own
make-up, but Virginia gave me clothes.
She gave me these really tight skimpy
shorts with a spaghetti-strap top with all
my cleavage hanging out. She just said
Carolyn Andriano
testified at the
trial of Ghislaine
Maxwell in New
York last year,
after which the
British socialite
was convicted of
recruiting and
grooming girls
for sexual abusevehicle into tight spaces
through an app or a key fob
instead of sitting inside — yet
only one in seven of those
with the function sometimes
or always use it.
Adaptive cruise control,
fitted to almost a third of cars,
helps drivers to keep a safe
distance from the vehicle in
front thanks to laser or radar,
but only a third of those who
have it ever use it. Less than a
third who have speed limiters
use them.
Instead, motorists turn to
gizmos for routine tasks such
as switching on windscreen
wipers or heating or cooling
the car before getting inside.
The AA surveyed 13,
drivers about 20 vehicle
functions, ranging from
cruise control, fitted on two
thirds of cars, to remote
control parking, available on
less than a tenth.
Take-up of other options
such as assistance with
speed, lane-keeping andengine cut out when the car is
in traffic, the AA survey
found.
But, Cuerden said, many
had not changed their driving
to adapt to new technologies.
“I was taught to pump the
brake pedal, but if you do that
with a modern car, you will
confuse the heck out of it
because you have ABS and
brake assist which will stop
the wheels locking,” he
added.
Several former transport
ministers are concerned that
the government, too, has
failed to grasp the potential of
assistive technology to avoid
crashes and save lives.
The group of six, which
includes Norman Baker and
Sir Peter Bottomley, have
written to Grant Shapps, the
transport secretary, urging
him to mandate a package of
15 car safety features which
they say could prevent more
than 1,700 deaths and 15,
serious injuries by 2037.From July, new cars sold in
the European Union will
include, as standard,
functions that monitor
whether a driver is drowsy or
not paying attention to the
road. They will also detect the
presence of pedestrians and
cyclists.
The UK was involved in
devising the measures but,
since leaving the EU, must
now implement its own
vehicle approval system.
David Davies, executive
director of Pacts, the
parliamentary advisory
council for transport safety,
said the new measures would
come at “almost no cost to
government or the motorist”.
However, Neil Greig, the
director of policy and
research at Iam Roadsmart, a
road safety charity, warned:
“There is no point in fitting
this stuff if people aren’t
going to use it. We need
training at the point of sale.”
@nicholashellenIt takes just the flick of a
remote control and no time
behind the wheel for 007 to
try out his new car.
The film was Tomorrow
Never Dies and for James
Bond, played by Pierce
Brosnan, the technology,
even back in 1997, was easy to
master.
Yet a quarter of a century
later, embracing such gadgets
is not so straightforward for
most, according to a study by
the AA, examining attitudes
towards driving assistance
systems.
Car manufacturing is
undergoing a technological
transformation comparable
to the impact of the iPhone,
yet the findings indicate that
drivers are failing to utilise
the full potential of the new
software.
Remote control parking
allows motorists to squeeze aNicholas Hellen
Transport EditorCar safety technology is racing ahead but drivers often give it a swerve
SPAINMOROCCOTamarotDIGGING DEEPSPAIN20ft40ft60ft80ft100ft120ftHeight
comparisonHeightomparisonis18in
diameter
holeRayan was
stuck 104ft,
the height of
4-5 average
two-storey
houses,
below the
groundRescuers leave the site
after Rayan was found.
The anxious wait drew
large crowds as oxygen,
food and water were
lowered down the shaftReuters TV that the family
had first realised the boy was
missing when they heard
muffled crying and lowered a
phone into the well in an
attempt to locate him with its
light and camera. “He was
crying ‘lift me up’,” the
relative said.
The shaft of the well was
only 18in wide at the top and
much narrower towards the
bottom, which made it
impossible for rescuers to go
in. They decided against
widening the opening for fear
that earth would pour into
the hole.
The area is dotted with
deep wells, many used for
irrigating the cannabis crop
that is the main source of
income for many in the poor,
remote and arid area,
although most have
protective covers.
Working round the clock in
freezing temperatures,
rescue teams led by
Morocco’s Civil Protection
Directorate spent three days
digging the trench and on
Friday linked it to the well
with the horizontal tunnel,
which they shored up with
concrete and steel pipes.
In the meantime, they sent
a camera down, with footage
from it on Thursday showing
Rayan alive and conscious,
though apparently suffering
from minor head injuries.
They also lowered an
oxygen mask, food and water
into the well, but it was not
clear whether the boy had
been able to make use of the
supplies. Nor did he respond
to attempts to talk to him.
Hopes were raised early
yesterday when rescuers
entered the tunnel. But they
lost precious hours getting
past a large rock in their path.
@Peter_ConradiA five-year-old boy trapped
for four days at the bottom of
a well in Morocco more than
100ft below ground was
brought to the surface last
night after a massive rescue
operation but died of his
injuries.
A cheer went up from the
crowd gathered round the
well as the boy — named only
as Rayan — was carried out on
a stretcher, wrapped in a
yellow blanket, and put into
an ambulance.
The joy turned to sadness,
however, when King
Mohammed VI announced
shortly afterwards in a
statement that the boy had
not survived his long ordeal
underground and expressed
his condolences to his family.
Government officials told
Reuters he was already dead
when a medical team reached
him.
Five diggers had been used
to carve a massive trench
parallel with the well, and a
horizontal tunnel was then
excavated to allow the team
to reach the boy. But rescuers
had to work slowly for fear of
triggering a landslide and by
the time they reached him it
was too late.
Rayan fell into the well
near Tamarot, in the Rif
mountains in the north of the
country, on Tuesday
afternoon while his father
was repairing it. “In that one
moment I took my eyes off
him, the little one fell into the
well. I haven’t slept a wink,”
his father, who has not been
named, told Le360, a local
news site. He was among
those gathered at the scene as
messages of support poured
in from around the world.
A male relative toldPeter ConradiREUTERSemergency braking is evenly
divided between those who
choose to use it and those
who don’t.
Jack Cousens, head of
roads policy for the AA, said:
“Drivers have mixed feelings
on the rise of in-car
technology... One reason
may be due to the lack of
details provided to
consumers when they buy a
car.
“Some dealerships are
very good and will take the
time to explain and teach
customers about what they
are buying, whereas others
gloss over it to obtain a sale.”
Steve Gooding, director of
the RAC Foundation, an
independent research
charity, said motorists were
often unaware of how to use
their cars’ full range of
capabilities.
“We were reaching the
point where getting in the
driver’s seat was like getting
in the cockpit of a Boeing 74760TRUST IN TECHNOLOGYAutomatic
windscreen
wipers
93% chose to
hand over this
repetitive taskA
Automatic
headlamps
90% ask the car’s
software to turn
them on and offEmergency
braking assistance
51% permit the
system to increase
braking pressure
in an emergencySource : AA poll by Yonder, 13,746 respondents, January 2022The figures show the percentage of drivers with the feature who use it all the time or sometimesPre-conditioning
81% heat or cool
the passenger
compartment
before they get inLane departure
warning
59% receive an alert
to avoid crashes due
to drifting out of laneRoad sign
recognition
71% use cameras to
scan for signs such
as changes in the
speed limit— there were dials and
switches everywhere,” he
said. “But what’s happened
since is, in a way, worse. The
dials and switches have gone
away to be replaced by a
touchscreen: the functions
haven’t gone, it’s just even
harder to define them.”
Lifesaving features such as
the eCall button, standard in
most new vehicles, which is
triggered when airbags are
deployed and provides
emergency services with an
exact location, were often
difficult to find, Gooding said.
Richard Cuerden, a safety
expert who is director of the
Transport Research
Laboratory Academy, said
there were encouraging signs
of drivers allowing the
computer software to
improve their behaviour.
Almost four fifths of
drivers used automatic stop-
start, for example, a button
that helps to reduce
emissions by making theSearch for boy trapped in well ends in tragedy
THAMI NOUAS/REUTERS; FADEL SENNA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES