Ghislaine Maxwell verdict makes things worse for Prince Andrew

Now Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted, chances of Andrew winning legal action by Virginia Giuffre look even slimmer.

The guilty verdict against Ghislaine Maxwell leaves the Duke of York in an even worse position than he was before.

He was already facing the extremely uncomfortable prospect of a trial in the US in front of a jury that is unlikely to be sympathetic to a British prince. Now that Maxwell has been convicted, the chances of him winning in the legal action brought against him by Virginia Giuffre look even slimmer than they did previously.

Only one verdict in New York this week would have made any difference to Andrew, and that would have been if Maxwell had been cleared of all charges. That would at least have created the impression that not all the accusations levelled against Jeffrey Epstein and his acolytes have to be taken at face value.

Prince Andrew with Melania Trump, Gwendolyn Beck and Jeffrey EpsteinvMar-a-Lago in 2000. Picture: Getty Images.

But that did not happen. Instead Maxwell was found guilty, and the narrative has been reinforced that in Epstein’s world there were only two sorts of people: abusers and victims. When members of the jury to hear Giuffre’s civil claim against Prince Andrew are selected, there is one central fact that they will remember: that Andrew’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty by a New York court.

Unlike Maxwell, Andrew is facing a civil claim rather than a criminal trial. Giuffre, who was formerly known as Virginia Roberts, claims that she was forced to sleep with Andrew when she was 17. The duke strenuously denies the claims.

Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defence lawyer in New York, said the crucial difference was that there was a higher burden of proof in a criminal trial than a civil case. “Every jury is different and the facts will be different, so you can never really predict,” he said. “But it does not bode well for the prince.”

There are two small crumbs of comfort that Andrew can take from Maxwell’s trial. One is that Giuffre, 38, was not called to give evidence.

The prosecution chose to taunt the defence with this, saying that Giuffre was “the most obvious witness”. Andrew Rohrbach, for the prosecution, said: “They did not call her. She was equally available to both sides.”

However, what the prosecution did not say was why it had not called Giuffre themselves. One suggestion is that it feared that inconsistencies in her story that have emerged over the years might not have been helpful.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre interviewed on US TV.

The reason that the defence did not call Giuffre is easier to understand. She blames Maxwell for ruining her life. Any testimony she might have given could have been extremely damaging to Maxwell.

The other bit of solace for Andrew is that Maxwell did not give evidence in her own defence. She said there was no need because the prosecution had failed to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Whatever the reason, her silence would surely have suited Andrew. She knows everything about what happened in the Epstein household: and, of course, she was present when Andrew was introduced to Giuffre. The infamous photograph of the prince with his arm around the teenager is proof enough of that.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London. Picture: Florida Southern District Court/Supplied

If Maxwell had taken the witness stand, it is likely that the prosecution would have asked her about Prince Andrew. So far she has remained steadfastly loyal to her old friend, but the prospect of her being cross-examined about exactly what Andrew did, where and when, might have rendered him extremely uneasy.

The duke’s lawyers are trying to have Giuffre’s civil action against him dismissed, describing it as “baseless”. They say that Giuffre has long lived in Australia, depriving the Manhattan court of jurisdiction, and cannot support her claim that she is a Colorado resident.

Lawyers for Giuffre have called that argument “another in a series of tired attempts by Prince Andrew to duck and dodge the legal merits of the serious case Virginia Giuffre has brought”.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan has agreed to take into account a 2009 settlement deal between Giuffre and Epstein, who killed himself in 2019, which the duke has argued contains a release that invalidates her claim against him. That settlement will be made public early next week.

Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with the duke on three separate occasions in 2001. She is seeking unspecified damages.

On Tuesday Judge Kaplan will hear arguments on the duke’s motion to dismiss the case.

The Times