Prince Andrew’s new legal blow as team reportedly in ‘emergency talks’ after Maxwell guilty verdict

Prince Andrew has been dealt another blow as a judge denied his bid for his sexual assault case to be thrown out because his accuser “lives in Australia”.

Prince Andrew has been dealt another blow as a judge denied his bid for his sexual assault case to be thrown out because his accuser “lives in Australia”.

The Duke, 61, is facing a lawsuit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre who claims she was forced to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002 – in London, New York and on Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island.

His lawyers called for the lawsuit be thrown out as Ms Roberts Giuffre “lives in Australia and not the US”, The Sun reports.

They also claimed questioning Ms Roberts Giuffre under oath would show she is “domiciled” in Australia instead of Colorado.

But Judge Lewis A Kaplan denied their bid.

Ms Roberts Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, called the request to throw out the case “just another in a series of tired attempts by Prince Andrew to duck and dodge the legal merits of the case brought against him”.

Prince Andrew’s lawyers were locked in emergency talks this week after Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in New York for recruiting and grooming underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new report.

The British royal is facing renewed scrutiny after Maxwell’s verdict as he battles sexual assault allegations levelled against him in a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan, the Mirror reports.

Accuser Ms Roberts Giuffre has alleged the Duke of York sexually abused her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell. Prince Andrew has vehemently denied all allegations against him.

His legal team is understood to now be contemplating whether to call one of the accusers who testified as a prosecution witness during Maxwell’s trial to help in his civil case, legal sources told the outlet.

Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York, has vehemently denied all claims against him. Picture: Steve Parsons.

They are hoping to seize on “smoking gun” testimony given by one of four women — referred to during Maxwell’s trial as “Carolyn” — on how she was introduced to Epstein.

Carolyn testified that Roberts Giuffre, not Maxwell, had taken her to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s, the NY Post reports.

It comes as the settlement agreement between Epstein and Ms Roberts Guiffre is set to be made public after judges in the US ordered its release, finding no reason that it should be kept sealed.

“Andrew’s US team immediately seized upon Carolyn’s testimony,” a legal source told the outlet. Carolyn’s testimony could be used by Prince Andrew’s lawyers as they attempt to discredit Giuffre by claiming she helped recruit young girls for Epstein, the sources said.

“They believe she holds a smoking gun to any possible role Virginia played in Epstein’s pyramid scheme of abuse.

“Andrew’s lawyers have convinced him that if he is to stand any chance of preventing her case from going to court, they need to fight with fire and that nothing should be off limits.

“They believe Carolyn’s evidence seriously, if not fatally, weakened the case” against the prince.

With Maxwell’s conviction, Prince Andrew’s lawyers are said to be concerned, because the burden of proof is lower in civil cases than what is needed in a criminal case.

Experts have pointed to how OJ Simpson was cleared in Nicole Brown’s death criminally but was later found guilty in a civil case brought by her family.

In her civil lawsuit, Ms Roberts Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York in Maxwell’s London home and elsewhere when she was 17.

Giuffre was not listed as a victim in the indictment against Maxwell and did not testify at her trial.

Evidence that Maxwell and Epstein flew with Giuffre across the country and that they recruited her for abuse was allowed into the trial as potential corroboration of a sex-trafficking conspiracy. Maxwell was found guilty of five of six counts she was facing in the sex-trafficking trial. She faces up to 65 years in prison.

Originally published as Prince Andrew’s new legal blow as team reportedly in ‘emergency talks’ after Maxwell guilty verdict