Prince Andrew remained silent Tuesday, hours after Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit accusing the royal of sexual assault.
Representatives for Buckingham Palace referred HuffPost inquiries regarding the allegations against Andrew to the prince’s legal team. A spokesperson for Andrew’s legal team issued a statement saying “no comment” when HuffPost asked for a response to the legal allegations.
Giuffre’s lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan under the Child Victims Act, alleges that she was trafficked to the royal by the late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein and his assistant, Ghislaine Maxwell, and that she was sexually abused by the prince on three occasions when she was 17. Maxwell awaits trial on sex trafficking charges, which she denies.
“I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me,” Giuffre, now 38, said in a statement to ABC News.
“The powerful and rich are not exempt from being held responsible for their actions. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but to reclaim one’s life by speaking out and demanding justice.”
Andrew and Buckingham Palace have repeatedly denied Giuffre’s allegations of sexual assault over the years. During a 2019 interview with BBC’s “Newsnight” program, the duke said he had “no recollection” of even meeting Giuffre.
The backlash to the “Newsnight” interview was so severe that the prince announced soon afterward that he was stepping back from royal life “for the foreseeable future.” He also pledged at the time that he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.”
Geoffrey S. Berman, former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in 2020 that the prince had provided “zero cooperation” and was attempting to “falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate,” something Andrew’s legal team at the time denied.
David Boies, Guiffre’s attorney, told ABC News Monday that “we’ve been trying to have a dialog with Prince Andrew or his lawyers” since 2015.
“We have given him every opportunity to provide any explanation or context that he might have,” Bois said. “We’ve tried to reach a resolution without the necessity of litigation. Prince Andrew and his lawyers have been totally non-responsive.”
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