Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has reached an out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre, a woman who sued him over alleged sexual assault.
The 38-year-old woman had accused 61-year-old Prince Andrew of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrew’s friend, notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday.
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Giuffre had accused the prince of sexually assaulting her in New York when she was 17 in 2001.
The 38-year-old woman had also alleged that Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew’s friend, set her up for the sexual encounter.
In the lawsuit, Giuffre claimed the Duke of York, 61, had sex with her without her consent, even though he was aware of her age at the time.
The settlement includes an undisclosed payment but the prince did not admit wrongdoing .
Giuffre’s case had focused on Andrew’s friendship with late Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender who she said also sexually abused her. The filing said Andrew regrets his past association with Epstein.
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In the joint filing, lawyers for Giuffre and Andrew said their settlement in principle calls for the prince to make a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.
The filing said;
Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.
Andrew has denied accusations that he forced Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, to have sex at age 17 more than two decades ago at the London home of Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell,
A trial in the case had been expected to begin late this year. Andrew would have had to give testimony under oath.
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The filing stated;
It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.
The statement represented a marked departure from a 2019 BBC interview in which Andrew, who is Queen Elizabeth’s second son, failed to show sympathy toward Epstein’s victims and refused to apologize for his friendship with the financier.
The royal family in January removed Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages and said he will no longer be known as “His Royal Highness.”
Meanwhile, Penny Junor, a British royal biographer, called the settlement a “prudent” means to limit further damage to the royal family, but that Andrew’s reputation will likely be permanently scarred.
“I fear there is no chance he will come back to public duties,” Junor said. “A question mark will always hang over him.”
Epstein killed himself at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
While his former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She is seeking a new trial.
