Prince Andrew, the embattled Duke of York, has been successfully served with a lawsuit by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her in three locations when she was 17 years old, court documents indicated on Friday.
The prince’s alleged victim Virginia Giuffre announced the development in a court filing containing an affidavit by her process server Cesar Augusto Sepulveda, who wrote that he served the royal—whose full name is Andrew Albert Christian Edward—on Aug. 27 at 9:30 a.m.
The Metropolitan Police Office and Head of Security at The Royal Lodge accepted service, according to the affidavit.
The development comes just days before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled an initial pretrial conference for this coming Monday, Sept. 13.
Giuffre, one of the most outspoken and prominent of now-deceased Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, claims that the prince sexually abused her in three locations: two properties of Epstein—a New York mansion and private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands—and one belonging to accused accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, her London home. Maxwell can be seen in the third locale in the background of a photograph showing the prince with his arm around Giuffre’s waist.
The allegations first surfaced in Giuffre’s civil litigation some six years ago accusing Maxwell of turning her into a “sex slave” for the wealthy and powerful, including the British prince.
Giuffre sued the prince under the New York Child Victims Act, and an exhibit to the affidavit shows a letter her attorney David Boies sent to the royal’s counsel preceding the filing of her lawsuit.
“We have previously sought, so far without success, to meet with Prince Andrew or his counsel to receive Prince Andrew’s information and views, and to discuss whether a negotiated resolution might be appropriate,” Boies wrote on July 19. “We continue to be interested in such an approach.”
At the time, Boies urged a quick response because the statute of limitations window was quickly closing under the statute that enabled her lawsuit, which was filed on Aug. 9.
Giuffre filed her lawsuit against the prince in the Manhattan-based federal court where she previously sued Maxwell, who is awaiting trial later this year in the same jurisdiction: the Southern District of New York. The district’s former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman released an extraordinary public statement years ago declaring that Prince Andrew provided “zero cooperation” with his probe of the Epstein scandal.
Giuffre’s lawyers made note of that development in their lawsuit.
“Prince Andrew and his counsel have also refused to cooperate with counsel for the victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking. Counsel for the victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking, including counsel for Plaintiff, have repeatedly asked for a meeting or telephone call with Prince Andrew and/or his representatives to enable Prince Andrew to provide whatever facts, context, or explanation he might have, and to explore alternative dispute resolution approaches,” the lawsuit states. “Prince Andrew and his representatives have rejected all such requests, and responded by escalating their vile and baseless attacks on Plaintiff and others.”
The prince’s lawyer Clare Montgomery did not respond to Law&Crime’s email requesting comment.
Read the process server’s affidavit below:
(Screenshot from Giuffre’s lawsuit)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow Law&Crime:
