The Duke of York’s accuser Virginia Giuffre would be unlikely to accept a “purely financial settlement” to end her sexual assault civil lawsuit against the royal, her lawyer has said.
David Boies was speaking after a US judge rejected Prince Andrew’s motion to have the civil case against him dismissed, paving the way for a possible civil trial in the autumn.
Legal experts say one way for Andrew, 61, to avoid trial would be to reach an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre, 38, who claims she was trafficked by the financier Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with powerful people, including Andrew, when she was 17. Andrew has consistently denied her allegations.
(January 1, 1999)
In the early 90s, Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, met investment banker and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Their relationship was initially romantic, but it evolved into something more akin to Maxwell being a confidante and personal assistant.
Prince Andrew was reportedly introduced to Epstein through Maxwell in 1999, and Epstein reportedly visited the Queen’s private retreat in Aberdeenshire.
Some have suggested the introduction was made earlier. A 2011 letter to the Times of London from the prince’s then private secretary, Alastair Watson, suggests Andrew and Epstein knew each other from the early 90s.
(January 1, 2000)
Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein are seen together at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Later that year, Epstein and Maxwell attend a joint birthday party at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen.
(January 1, 2001)
Andrew and Epstein holiday together and are pictured on a yacht in Phuket, Thailand, surrounded by topless women. The Times of London reported the prince’s holiday was paid for by Epstein.
In the same year, Virginia Giuffre, then 17, claims to have had sex with Andrew in Maxwell’s home in Belgravia, London. Giuffre, whose surname was Roberts at the time of the alleged incidents, says she slept with Andrew twice more, at Epstein’s New York home and at an “orgy” on his private island in the Caribbean.
(January 1, 2008)
Epstein is jailed for 18 months by a Florida state court after pleading guilty to prostituting minors.
(January 1, 2010)
Soon after his release, Epstein is visited by Andrew in New York. The pair are photographed together in Central Park. Footage emerges years later, reportedly shot on 6 December, that appears to show Andrew inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion waving goodbye to a woman from behind a door.
(January 1, 2011)
Andrew quits his role as UK trade envoy following a furore over the Central Park photos.
(January 1, 2015)
Allegations that Andrew had sex with Giuffre emerge in court documents in Florida related to Epstein. The papers say she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is below the age of consent under Florida law. Buckingham Palace denies the allegations. The claims against Andrew are later struck from US civil court records following a federal judge’s ruling.
(January 1, 2019)
Andrew is accused of sexual impropriety by a second alleged Epstein victim, Johanna Sjoberg. She claims he touched her breast at the billionaire’s Manhattan apartment in 2001. Buckingham Palace says the allegations are "categorically untrue".
(August 10, 2019)
Epstein is found dead in his jail cell after being re-arrested and charged with sex trafficking. A medical examiner says the death was a suicide. A pilot on Epstein’s private jet later that month claims Andrew was a passenger on past flights with the financier and Giuffre.
(November 20, 2019)
Andrew takes part in a disastrous BBC TV interview during which he claims he could not have had sex with Giuffre because he was at home after a visit to Pizza Express in Woking, and that her description of his dancing with her beforehand could not be true because he was unable to sweat, and that he had "no recollection of ever meeting this lady". After several days of negative reaction, Andrew announces he is to step back from public duties "for the foreseeable future".
(January 27, 2020)
US prosecutor Geoffrey Berman gives a public statement suggesting there has been "zero cooperation" with the investigation from Andrew.
(June 8, 2020)
After Berman again claims Andrew has "completely shut the door" on cooperating with the US investigation in March, lawyers for the prince insist he has repeatedly offered to cooperate and accuse US prosecutors of misleading the public and breaching confidentiality.
(July 2, 2020)
Maxwell, who has seldom been seen in public in recent years, is arrested by the FBI on charges related to Epstein. Unsealed testimony from a 2015 civil case reveal a series of claims about her role in Epstein's sex-trafficking ring, including allegations that she trained underage girls as sex slaves.
(September 24, 2021)
US officials confirm that Prince Andrew has received court papers relating to a sexual assault civil lawsuit from Giuffre, seeking damages. Her lawyers had earlier said the duke had officially been served with the papers, but his legal team had disputed the claim. Two weeks later, a court in New York granted his lawyers permission to see the confidential settlement agreement between Giuffre and Epstein.
(October 11, 2021)
The Metropolitan police in London say they are taking no further action after a review of the allegations that Prince Andrew assaulted Giuffre. In August, the Met commissioner, Cressida Dick, had said “no one is above the law” and that she had asked her team to look at the material again.
(December 30, 2021)
Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial ends with a guilty verdict on five of the six counts she faced.
(January 12, 2022)
A judge in New York rejects Prince Andrew’s attempt to throw out the sexual abuse civil lawsuit brought against him by Giuffre. The prince's lawyers had attempted to argue that Giuffre’s 2009 settlement with Epstein shielded the duke from her taking legal action against him.
(January 13, 2022)
Queen Elizabeth II strips her son of a range of military affiliations and royal patronages after more than 150 military veterans write to describe their “upset and anger”.
Boies said: “I think it’s very important to Virginia Giuffre that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates the other victims.”
“I don’t think that she has a firm view at this point, nor could she, as to exactly what the resolution should be. But I think what’s going to be important is that this resolution vindicates her and vindicates the claim she’s made,” he told BBC’s Newsnight.
Boies said there had been no suggestion of settlement discussions at this point. He said that prior to bringing the case they had “reached out” to Andrew and the prince’s lawyers and suggested mediation, but “there was no interest in that at that time”.
“Whether that has changed or not, I think we’ll have to wait and see.”
He added: “A purely financial settlement is not anything that I think she’s [Giuffre] interested in.”
When asked about the US ruling, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said: “We would not comment on what is an ongoing legal matter.”
Andrew now faces the prospect of Giuffre giving a detailed account in court of the allegation she was trafficked to have sex with the Queen’s second son when she was 17.
The Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed a motion by the duke’s lawyers on Wednesday to have the civil case thrown out after they argued Giuffre had waived her right to pursue the royal by signing a confidential settlement in 2009 with Epstein, in exchange for $500,000, in which she agreed not to sue any other potential defendants.
In his detailed ruling, Kaplan decided there was more than one interpretation of the 2009 deal, saying it was ambiguous and that it was premature to consider the points raised by Andrew to cast doubt on Giuffre’s claims, though his efforts would be permissible at trial.
The ruling means the case now moves to the “discovery” phase. As it progresses towards trial, the duke, Giuffre and any other potential witnesses would have to give depositions.
Boies said the judge’s ruling was “an important step” in moving towards any trial. “It is, however, just one step and there are many more steps to be taken,” he said. The next would be the taking of evidence, and they were already in the phase of exchanging documents, he said.
He said Andrew had made a lot of statements in his 2019 Newsnight interview, “which he will have to try and back up in his deposition”.
Andrew’s approach had been “to deny, deny, deny, to blame Virginia, to criticise her, to attack her character, her moral credibility, and we will see how all that plays out when he’s under oath”, Boies said.
Asked whether, if the case went to trial, Andrew would be likely to appear in person, Boies said he thought the chances of the case going to trial were good.
“Whether he shows up himself, or simply his lawyers, is something that is in part up to him, and in part up to the court. In a civil case it is not always necessary for the defendant to be present when the trial takes place. It’s typically advisable because it is often hard to defend yourself when you’re absent,” he said.
Andrew has three main options: ignoring the lawsuit, which is his right; engaging with the American legal system to defend himself against the allegations, or attempting to reach an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre. If he ignores the civil proceedings, a default judgment would be made in favour of Giuffre.
