Prince Andrew reaches settlement with sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre

New York: Prince Andrew, accused in a US lawsuit of sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl supplied to him by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to settle by making a substantial donation to her charity and declaring he never meant to malign her character.

The deal avoids a trial that would have brought further embarrassment to the British monarchy. Besides the undisclosed donation to Virginia Giuffre’s charity, the court filing revealed on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT)says Andrew acknowledges she has suffered as an abuse victim. It did not specify whether Giuffre would personally receive money as part of the settlement.

The settlement should save Prince Andrew and the royal family a potentially embarrassing court case.Credit: PA

In a joint court filing, lawyers for Giuffre and Andrew said the settlement included an undisclosed sum and that Andrew intended to make a substantial donation to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.

“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,” the filing said.

The settlement

The London Telegraph reported that the prince would pay Giuffre more than £12 million ($22 million), citing “sources close to the talks” on Andrew’s side.

The British paper said the Queen would contribute some money towards the settlement from the income from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate, not from the public purse.

The Queen has privately funded Andrew’s legal fight to the tune of millions of pounds and will now partly pay for the settlement to allow her son – and the entire royal family – to draw a line under the case that had threatened to overshadow her Platinum Jubilee.

Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies said in the filing in Manhattan federal court that lawyers on both sides were informing the judge that a settlement in principle had been reached and they would request a dismissal of the lawsuit within a month.

It spares Andrew from a potentially embarrassing series of disclosures and accusations in the months leading up to and during a trial, which was slated to begin late this year.

Prince Andrew pictured with Virginia Giuffre at the home of convicted sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (right) in London in 2001. Credit:

Regret, but no admission

The parties asked the judge in the case to suspend all deadlines and hold the action in abeyance.

Attached to the filing was a statement that read: “Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre’s receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).

It also said: “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.”

Andrew has denied Giuffre’s accusations that he forced her to have sex more than two decades ago at a London home of former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and that he also abused her at two Epstein properties.

Giuffre has been one of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s most prominent accusers.

The statement is a marked departure from an interview that Andrew gave the BBC in 2019 in which he failed to appear sympathetic towards Epstein’s abuse victims, and refused to apologise for his friendship with him.

The titles

The tentative settlement comes weeks after US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan last month rejected the prince’s attempt to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit, meaning depositions and other evidence gathering could commence.

After Kaplan ruled, Andrew — who had already stepped back from royal duties — was stripped of his honorary military titles and roles and leadership of various charities, known as royal patronages. He also can no longer use the title “his royal highness” in official settings.

The decision was an effort to insulate the House of Windsor from the fallout from potentially years of sordid headlines if the lawsuit moved forward.

It came after more than 150 veterans and serving members of the armed forces asked the Queen to strip her second son of his military titles, saying he had failed to live up to the “very highest standards of probity, honesty and honourable conduct” that are expected of British officers.

Mark Stephens, an international lawyer, said pressure from the royal family would have pushed Andrew to settle, particularly as the Queen celebrates her 70 years on the throne this year. The carefully worded settlement — in which Andrew admits only an unfortunate association with Epstein — allows him to save face, Stephens said.

“Essentially, what he’s done is throw himself on this judicial grenade to prevent wider damage to the royal family,” Stephens said. “And I think he had no alternative but to settle because otherwise this case would have really overshadowed the Queen’s Jubilee, and we would have been hearing details of what he was alleged to have done with Virginia Giuffre. And all of that would have really caused problems for the royal family more broadly.”

Andrew was defending against GIuffre’s lawsuit as a private citizen. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the settlement. A spokeswoman for the prince declined to comment beyond the court filing.

Other accused

The settlement may be a relief to others beyond the prince and Giuffre because of the names that might have arisen at trial.

Besides Andrew, Giuffre has said she was sexually trafficked to former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former US senator George Mitchell, high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz, French modelling scout Jean Luc Brunel and billionaire Glenn Dubin, among others. All have said her accounts are fabricated.

Andrew has spent years combatting concerns about his links with Epstein, the US financier who took his life at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. Epstein’s longtime companion Maxwell was convicted of related charges last month.

A settlement of the Andrew lawsuit would follow deals reached by Giuffre years ago to resolve separate lawsuits against Maxwell and Epstein. It was recently revealed that Epstein settled for $US500,000.

AP, Reuters

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