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Prince Andrew: Has since lost the backing of the royal family
Photo: Steve Parsons/Getty Images
Plaintiff Virginia Giuffre has named her first witnesses in the New York civil case over abuse allegations against Britain's Prince Andrew.
She wants to interview a woman who is said to have seen the royal in a nightclub with a "young girl".
Former assistant Andrews is also said to testify.
This emerges from a court application by Giuffre's lawyers.
Both live in Great Britain.
Shukri Walker said he "saw Prince Andrew at the Tramp nightclub in London with a young girl around the time the plaintiff alleges she was molested by Prince Andrew after going to a nightclub," Giuffre's lawyer wrote Sigrid McCawley.
Former assistant is said to have "relevant information".
Since Andrew has denied ever meeting the plaintiff or having been in the Tramp at the relevant time, Walker's testimony is "highly relevant," the lawyer added.
Giuffre accuses Andrew of repeatedly sexually abusing her when she was 17, a minor.
She is demanding undisclosed compensation.
One of the crimes is said to have taken place in March 2001 at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, confidant of now dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after a previous visit to The Tramp.
In addition to denying the allegations, Prince Andrew also denied having been there with Giuffre.
He states that he has no memory of any encounter with her.
Through Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in the United States at the end of December, Prince Andrew met US billionaire Jeffry Epstein and visited him several times at his estate.
Giuffre's lawyers also want to question Andrew's former assistant, Robert Olney, in court.
According to her, he has "relevant information" about Andrew's relationship with Epstein.
His name was in his address book – the “little black book” – as reported by Sky News, among others.
Prince Andrew's lawyers, in turn, apparently want to question Giuffre's credibility with testimonies in the process. They want to interview Judith Lightfoot, a psychologist who Giuffre went to after she moved to Australia. In addition to questioning Lightfoot about the therapy sessions, Andrew's defense also requested the relevant psychologist's notes and medical records.
Andrew's attorney, Melissa Lerner, told the court that Giuffre may have "false memories."
The defense wanted to question Lightfoot on this theory.
The defense attorneys also want to call the plaintiff's husband, Robert Giuffre, to the witness stand.
The couple reportedly married in 2002 and live in Australia with their three children.
The husband is said to be questioned about both Giuffre's "alleged emotional and psychological damage" and her financial situation.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly firmly denied the allegations made by Giuffre.
Because of the allegations and his previous contacts with Epstein, however, he gave up his royal duties in 2019 and largely withdrew from the public.
After Andrew's motion to have Giuffre's lawsuit dismissed was denied, Buckingham Palace said Thursday that Elizabeth II's second eldest son is relinquishing his military titles and royal patronage.
In the New York court case, he would "defend himself as a private citizen."
bbr/AFP