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Principal Epstein accuser sues Prince Andrew, claiming underage sex abuse

Virginia Giuffre accuses the prince, a pal of the late Jeffrey Epstein, of having sex with her on at least three occasions.

(CN) — Prince Andrew was hit with a federal complaint on Monday by a woman whom the late Jeffrey Epstein recruited for sex trafficking. She says 20 years ago, when she was 17 years old, the Duke of York sexually assaulted her multiple times.

Virginia L. Giuffre, now a resident of Colorado, alleges that Prince Andrew, aka Andrew Albert Christian, sexually abused her on separate occasions when she was under the age of 18. Giuffre alleges she was the victim of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation between 2000 and 2002, beginning when she was age 16.

“Prince Andrew committed sexual assault and battery upon plaintiff when she was 17 years old,” according to the complaint, which was filed in the Southern District of New York. “As such, Prince Andrew is responsible for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress pursuant to New York common law. The damage to plaintiff has been severe and lasting.”

The suit was filed by David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP of Armonk, New York.

“In this country no person, whether president or prince, is above the law, and no person, no matter how powerless or vulnerable, can be deprived of the law’s protection,” the complaint states. “Twenty years ago Prince Andrew’s wealth, power, position, and connections enabled him to abuse a frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her. It is long past the time for him to be held to account.”

Prince Andrew, who is now living in the Royal Lodge at Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, told the BBC in 2019 that he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre. Though he later said he would cooperate with U.S. authorities investigating Epstein, Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Prince Andrew had provided “zero cooperation."

Giuffre says Epstein recruited her into his sex-trafficking operation when she was working at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. She says that Prince Andrew’s sexual abuse occurred in Epstein’s New York mansion and on Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as in London at the home of Ghislaine Maxwell, a former romantic partner of Epstein’s who is now charged as recruiter in his sex-trafficking ring.

Epstein was charged on July 2, 2019, by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York with sex-trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking. On August 10, 2019, about a month after his arrest, Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

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Categories / Civil Rights, Criminal, Entertainment, International

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