It seems increasingly likely that the prince andrew of England has to face civil proceedings in New York after being accused of sexual assault in August 2021 by Virginia Guffre. A case that, according to analysts, could shake the British monarchy just as the scandal between Carlos and Diana did more than 20 years ago.
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This week, Andres’ lawyers demanded “a judgment before a jury of all the reasons invoked in the civil complaint” filed by Giuffre, 38, who accuses him of having abused her three times in 2001, when she was a minor.
This unusual request comes after a judge did not take into account all the resources used by the prince’s defense to dismiss the accusation.
And while the parties can still reach an out-of-court economic agreement, something usual in most cases of this nature, this one in particular is much more complex to analyze.
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“The case is potentially seismic. Even now, even though both sides say they want a judge to decide this civil case, the chance of it being settled out of court is 95 percent, as is the case with most of these cases. However, it is very unlikely that Virginia Guffre don’t settle for money alone, while he denies any wrongdoing. If he goes to court, it will be an international cause célèbre,” British royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams explained to this newspaper.
Nicholas Witchel, the BBC’s correspondent for royal affairs, assures in an article published this week that Giuffre’s defense wants to take this case until the trial begins, which would further distance the possibility of a settlement.
If the trial takes place, the process will have a huge impact on the British royal family and will stain the 70th anniversary of the accession to the throne of the Queen isabel IIwhich are met in February and whose celebrations will mark the year in the United Kingdom.
“This case is important because of the circumstances: on February 6, Queen Elizabeth will become the first woman in history to serve 70 years on the throne. Never has a British monarch reached this many years. It is a harder blow compared to the Diana crisis because at that time adultery was questioned, but in this case there is a question of rape of minors, ”the international analyst of British politics, Isaac Bigio, explained to EL TIEMPO.
Details of the case against Prince Andrew
As he has always done, the prince “categorically” denies Giuffre’s accusations point by point in his lawyers’ court document. She, who before getting married was called Virginia Roberts and who currently resides in Australia, was the victim of American tycoon Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019 under mysterious circumstances, and her accomplice, the British Ghislaine Maxwellrecognized guilty in December in New York of sexual trafficking of minors.
Giuffre accuses Prince Andrew of having sexually abused her in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands, in the residences of the couple of sexual predators Epstein–Maxwellwhen she was 17 years old.
Before the defense asked for a trial to be opened to resolve the matter, the prince’s lawyers raised an agreement that Giuffre signed in 2009 with Epstein, in exchange for half a million dollars to avoid being sued in court in the future. The deal involved him and “other potential defendants.”
However, that last sentence was dismissed by justice. The judge at length and concluded that this court “cannot rewrite the 2009 agreement to grant the defendant rights where the agreement clearly does not state an intention to grant them.”
However, a possible trial in New York does not exclude that both parties reach a financial agreement, despite the fact that Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, had warned two weeks ago on the BBC that a simple compensation would not be enough for his client.
Plaintiff Bois’s New York attorney said Wednesday night in a statement offered to the AFP his “impatience to confront Prince Andrew, his denials and his attempts to blame Guiffre during his statement and during his trial”.
According to the British press, the prince recently settled a dispute over a debt of 6.6 million pounds sterling (about 8 million euros), with the sale of a chalet in Switzerland that he had bought in 2014 for about 21 million euros. (about 23.6 million dollars).
At the end of last year, Judge Lewis Kaplan, of the Mahanttan court, who on January 12 rejected the prince’s last appeal to file the case in which it was alleged that Giuiffrey had signed a confidentiality document with Epsteinanticipated that a civil process would take place between “September and October” 2022.
But while all this is resolved, the pressures on the monarchy will remain at the limit in the year in which Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 70th anniversary as monarch and Prince Andrew continues to fall from grace. To ease the pressure, the crown stripped the monarch’s spoiled son of all honorary titles.
“She had no other option not to be seen as an accomplice, and that had to be one of the bitterest drinks of her life, at the same level as the death of Diana of Wales, or the renunciation of one of her grandchildren to monarchical privileges ”, he opined about this decision Luis Alberto Villamarininternational analyst.
According to New York jurists, Andrés will have to make a statement under oath in a lawyer’s office, probably in the United Kingdom, and answer questions from the American defense of the complainant. His answers will later be submitted as evidence before a jury in charge of defining financial compensation for the complainant.
For the experts, the prince will have to appear at some point, since otherwise, he could be judged in absentia and in an “unfavourable” way. Giuffre’s civil suit cannot automatically be converted into a criminal sex crimes suit. Although nothing will prevent US federal prosecutors from initiating criminal proceedings against Andrés in the future if they consider that he has indeed been able to commit a crime and if he has not yet prescribed.
CARLOS JOSE REYES GARCIA
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP
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