New York judge delivers Prince Andrew legal win

A federal judge agrees that the 2009 settlement should be revealed to the Duke of York’s legal team.

The Duke of York has accepted that he has been served legal papers in a sexual assault lawsuit brought against him in the US. Picture: AFP

A judge has ordered that the Duke of York’s legal team be allowed to review a previously secret deal that could cause the sex abuse claim against him to collapse.

In the latest stage in the duke’s US legal battle, a federal judge agreed late on Wednesday that a 2009 settlement between ­financier Jeffrey Epstein and ­Virginia Roberts Giuffre should be revealed to Prince Andrew’s lawyers.

The move came after officials acting for Epstein’s estate agreed to disclose the confidential agreement to the duke’s legal team.

Lawyers for Andrew have claimed the 2009 deal between Epstein and Ms Giuffre – which ended a series of civil claims filed against the financier by women who alleged that he had abused them – would “release the duke from any and all liability”.

Ms Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, is suing the duke over allegations that he had sex with her in 2001 while being aware that she had been illegally trafficked and therefore was not able to give consent.

He has denied the claims.

In a New York court on Wednesday, judge Loretta Preska said the duke’s legal team was entitled to receive a copy of the settlement deal.

The move came several days after the Epstein estate agreed it would divulge the document to the duke’s lawyers.

David Boies, Ms Giuffre’s lawyer, had previously told the court the settlement deal between Epstein and his client was “irrelevant” to the claim against Andrew. However, in court Mr Boies agreed the duke’s legal team had the right to see the sealed documents.

Andrew Brettler, the duke’s US lawyer, said he had not received a copy of the 2009 agreement but expected that “pursuant to the judge’s order, Mr Boies will provide it to me shortly”.

Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer and Harvard law professor, and a friend of Epstein, told Forbes magazine in the US last month that the 2009 settlement led to a claim against him by Ms Giuffre being dismissed. “The same reasons for dismissing the case against me seem to apply to Prince Andrew,” he said.

In a letter to Judge Preska before she made her ruling, Mr Boies said Ms Giuffre’s legal team “believe that counsel for Prince Andrew have a right to review the (settlement document) and to make whatever arguments they believe appropriate based on it”.

During the past few weeks, the duke’s legal team has been involved in jousting with Ms ­Giuffre’s lawyers over whether the duke had been properly served with the notice of the claim against him in the New York court.

However, at the end of September the duke’s team acknowledged he had been served.

That has triggered speculation about whether the duke would submit himself to the jurisdiction of the New York court and defend the claim.

The Times