By Rachel Elbaum -
NBC News
London police said Monday that they will not take any action after analyzing a document related to a civil lawsuit in the United States for sexual assault against Prince Andrew, son of the Queen of England, Elizabeth II.
The lawsuit was filed in August in the Southern District of New York by Virginia Giuffre, who accuses the British royal family of sexually abusing her as a teenager.
Giuffre reports that she was forced into a sexual relationship with Andrew 20 years ago by tycoon Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in 2019 after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.
Lawsuit filed in US against Prince Andrew for alleged sexual assault
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The lawsuit against Andrew was filed under the New York State Child Victims Law.
The young woman alleges that the prince committed
the crime of rape in the first degree
.
Andrew, Duke of York, has always vehemently denied the allegations.
In a 2019 interview with British public broadcaster, he said he has "no recollection" of meeting Giuffre.
He also suggested that a photograph of them together with an Epstein associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, could have been tampered with.
The lawsuit alleges that Andrew abused Giuffre when he was under the age of 18 in three places: in London, in New York and on the private island of Epstein in the US Virgin Islands.
Prior to the complaint, Giuffre, now 38, disclosed the alleged abuses in an interview with NBC.
Ghislaine Maxwell, ex-partner of Jeffrey Epstein, accused of child sex trafficking
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The London Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it "remains in contact with other law enforcement agencies leading the investigation into issues related to Jeffrey Epstein."
However, its investigation into the lawsuit filed in August has been completed and
no action will be taken
.
The Police have also confirmed that they have concluded the review of Maxwell, Epstein's ex-girlfriend and partner, and of the accusations published by the British channel Channel 4 in June about trafficking of girls to groom and abuse them in the United Kingdom.
Maxwell, who is British, is in jail in the United States awaiting trial on charges of having recruited teenage girls for Epstein to abuse them.
This year he pleaded not guilty in federal court and has always denied any crime.
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Police Chief Cressida Dick said in August that
"no one is above the law
.
"
A controversial photo links accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein with Prince Andrew of England, according to a British newspaper
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The Police Department had previously reviewed complaints filed against Epstein.
After obtaining legal advice, he
decided not to take further action because the crimes reported had mainly taken place outside his jurisdiction
.
Following the news of the UK Police's decision, the hashtag #abolishthemonarchy (abolish the monarchy, in Spanish) and #PrinceAndrew were a trend on social media, with some users suggesting that the decision to renounce taking action was due that Andrew belongs to the royal family.
Andrew, who is ninth in line to the throne, has previously said that he
met Epstein in 1999
and had stayed in several of his residences, but saw him infrequently.
Controversy over his relationship with Epstein and the disastrous interview he gave to the BBC in 2019 led him to walk away from his actual duties.
[A French modeling agent is arrested for links to the Jeffrey Epstein case]
In June 2020,
federal prosecutors in New York formally requested through the British government to speak to Andrew
as part of their criminal investigation into Epstein, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
His lawyers replied that they had offered to help him as a witness on at least three occasions.
