After months of legal wrangling, the trial of the century is likely to see one former SW1 resident give testimony on the other side of the ocean in New York in the autumn of this year.
The allegations surrounding Prince Andrew brought by Virginia Giuffre have seen the Queen’s second son fiercely deny any involvement with Giuffre or doing anything wrong at all.
The infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis shocked the British public and rocked the Royal family to its core.
While not the only scandal to have involved Andrew, nick-named ‘Air miles Andy’ for his love of flying around the world in private airplanes mixing business with pleasure, the allegations thrust upon this once privileged prince, will not go away.
Giuffre claims in a civil suit filed in August 2021 that she was trafficked by now deceased convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, abused and forced to have sex with Andrew on three occasions when she was 17.
On 12 January 2022, Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan, rejected Andrew’s attempts to undermine Giuffre’s claims.
Andrew’s legal team argued in court papers that Giuffre’s 2009 settlement of $500,000 which was unsealed on 3 January 2022, shielded him from her lawsuit.
Judge Kaplan disagreed.
Andrew’s lawyers have asked for his hearing in New York to be heard by a jury.
This will please Giuffre, who it is rumoured to be more interested in an admission of guilt than justice hushed up with a settlement.
His lawyers hope the judge will allow him to appear by video link from his Windsor home as opposed to having to go to court in New York in person.
Andrew could be in the dock either in person or via video link, depending on what the judge sees fit, for up to 7 hours.
The Queen has removed Andrew’s ‘His Royal Highness’ title as well as stripping all military titles which sources say has saved a lot of embarrassment in proud soldiery circles, many of whom wrote to the Queen asking for this to be done loathing mire of association.
Andrew has also lost a number of charity patronages.
Until 2019 when Andrew was stood down from royal duties by the Queen, he received an unknown sum of money from the Sovereign grant.
The prince also receives a small amount of money, thought to be about £20,000 a year, from his armed forces pension.
He is also selling a luxury Swiss chalet, bought in 2015 for between £8m – £13m with his ex wife, Sarah Ferguson.
It is not known how much profit he will make from this sale due to mortgage payments having to be resolved.
His Sunninghill Park home which was gifted to him from the Queen upon his marriage to Ferguson was sold to Timur Kulibayev, the son in law of the former president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev for £15m which was £3m above the asking price.
It is unknown who is paying the mounting legal fees for Andrew or how he will continue paying his living expenses though the Queen is thought to be helping him with costs.
Andrew now resides in a Crown Estate house, Royal Lodge in Windsor Park which he paid £1m for in 2003 and gave him the right to live there for the next 75 years.
What will happen next at the trial of the century, remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure though, both Andrew and Giuffre are preparing for the fight of their lives.
Photo: Buckingham Palace by Ferdinand orh at Unsplash
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