Legal proceedings A civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew is progressing, a U.S. court ruled

Abroad|Trials

Civil action prince Andrew against proceeding further, a New York court ruled on Wednesday. The British, among others, are talking about it BBC and The Guardian.

The prince has been sued Virginia Giuffrethat Prince Andrew repeatedly sexually abused him twenty years ago when Giuffre was 17 years old.

According to Giuffre, a businessman Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell forced Giuffre into sex with the prince, including at Epstein’s home in New York and at Maxwell’s home in London.

Epstein died in prison in 2019, apparently killing himself. Maxwell was convicted in late December of, among other things, trafficking a minor for sexual exploitation.

Read more: Jury found Ghstein’s former partner Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of five of six charges

New Yorker the case, decided by the court on Wednesday, is a civil trial in which Giuffre is seeking compensation. No criminal charges have been brought against Prince Andrew. Thus, the prince cannot be sentenced to imprisonment, for example.

U.S. law dealt with the fate of the trial on Tuesday last week, and a decision has been awaited ever since. The dismissal of the lawsuit had been requested by the Prince’s legal team, which stated that there were no grounds for prosecution. The prince’s team appealed, among other things, to a 2009 settlement between Giuffre and Epstein, in which Giuffre was paid 500,000 euros. In addition to Epstein, the agreement protects Giuffre from “any other person or entity that could have been defendants” in the lawsuit.

Prince Andrew was not mentioned in the contract.

Read more: Secret agreement between woman accused of sexual abuse of Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein released

However, the court has now decided that the case can be continued. Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the demands of the legal team in all respects.

In his reasoning, Kaplan stated that at this stage of the proceedings, it is too early to decide whether the settlement between Giuffre and Epstein is also valid for the Prince.

“The task of the court at this stage is simply to determine whether there is such a document [sovitteluratkaisusta] there are several interpretations. If there is, further processing is needed, ”Kaplan said of The Guardian.