Britain’s Prince Andrew could be tried in an American courtroom late next year over allegations he sexually abused a woman when she was 17 years old, The Associated Press reported.
A trial over the charges of sexual assault would likely begin between September and December of 2022. according to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
Virginia Giuffre claims that Andrew abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was 17, and that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to Andrew and other men.
Giuffre says she was sexually assaulted by the prince at the London home of billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as at Epstein’s homes in Manhattan and Little Saint James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Andrew, 61, denied the charges, saying he never had sex with Giuffre.
Andrew’s attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the case because Giuffre settled sex trafficking and abuse claims against Epstein in 2009 with a “broad release” he insisted covered “any and all persons who Giuffre identified as potential targets of future lawsuits, regardless of the merit — or lack thereof — to any such claims”.
Epstein was found dead at age 66 in his cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial.
For the case against the second son of Queen Elizabeth of England to proceed, the judge must rule the agreement did not include Andrew.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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