Prince Andrew denies allegations of sexual abuse of a minor in a New York court

Prince Andrew of England, in a photo from August 2021. DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press)

Prince Andrew of England has begun his particular judicial journey through the desert, by presenting this Wednesday in a New York court, through his legal team, a document in which he formally denies the accusations of sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre.

In that letter, the lawyers of what was considered the favorite son of Queen Elizabeth II deny that the prince abused Giuffre (who was a minor the first time he had a sexual encounter with the duke, according to the complainant) and refuses that he was accomplice of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who ended up committing suicide in a New York police cell.

The documents, filed Wednesday by Prince Andrew's legal adviser, Andrew Brettler, contain a detailed rebuttal of all of Giuffre's claims and request that the Duke of York be granted a jury trial.

The battle that the 61-year-old prince faces is expected to be long and hard, since the attempts carried out so far by his legal team to close the case have been in vain.

On January 12, a US judge refused to file the case against Prince Andrew for sexual abuse.

The next day, Buckingham Palace distanced itself to preserve the queen's Platinum Jubilee and removed, "with the approval and consent of the queen", all military titles and royal patronage.

The prince, who denies the facts, faces a civil lawsuit by Giuffre for three cases of sexual abuse and rape: in the London apartment of Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, when she was a minor, in the mansion of the billionaire on Fifth Avenue in New York, and on one of his private islands in the Caribbean. The only thing the duke admits, in the document filed in court on Wednesday, is that "around 1999" he met Epstein.

The victim, who is now 38 years old, is married and lives in Australia, is one of the 30 women who raised their voices to denounce Epstein's child trafficking crimes, who committed suicide in 2019 at the age of 66 in his cell at waiting for a judicial process for crimes of sex with minors.

Maxwell has been found guilty of five crimes of sexual trafficking of minors by a US popular jury.

The trial against the Prince of England is due to start in the fall.

Andrés has sold his chalet in the Swiss Alps, valued at around 20 million dollars, to face the enormous cost of waging such a legal battle in US courts.

The last blow from Buckingham Palace was when it established that whoever was once considered a "hero of the Falklands" had to defend his case "as a private citizen".

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