Prince Andrew judge DENIES bid to crush sex assault lawsuit

A judge has dealt a huge blow to the attempt to get Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s lawsuit thrown out 

An attempt by Prince Andrew’s legal team to get Virginia Roberts Giuffre‘s lawsuit thrown out of court has been crushed today, Friday, December 31, by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. The 61-year-old’s team had asked for the sex assault case to be dismissed, due to the fact that his accuser currently lives in Australia, but the judge has denied their plea.

In her lawsuit, Ms Giuffre claims that between 1999 and 2002, she was forced into having sex with the  Duke three times, accusations he has always vehemently denied. Because she “lives in Australia and not the US”, Andrew’s legal team said that a court in New York would have jurisdiction to question the 38-year-old under oath.

Ms Guiffre is staying in Australia with her husband Robert, and their three children, leading Andrew Brettler, the Duke’s lawyer, to claim that she is ‘domiciled’ there, as opposed to her claim of living in Colorado.

His lawyer claims Ms Guiffre is after a payday from Prince Andrew

His argument apparently is that Ms Guiffre has been living in Perth, and has only actually spent around two years in America since 2002. He also pointed out that she uses an Australian driving licence.

While insisting to Judge Kaplan that his client never sexually assaulted Ms Guiffre, the Prince’s legal team is also accusing her of looking for a payday at his expense. They do not deny though that she was possibly a victim of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein.

A trial could take place sometime in 2022, between September and December, according to Judge Kaplan last month.

This latest request for the lawsuit to be thrown out is “just another in a series of tired attempts by Prince Andrew to duck and dodge the legal merits of the case brought against him”, commented Sigrid McCawley, one of Ms Guiffre’s lawyers.

“Even if Ms Giuffre’s Australian domicile could not be established as early as October 2015, there can be no real dispute that she was permanently living there, with an intent to remain there as of 2019, still two years before she filed this action against Prince Andrew”, wrote the Duke’s lawyers.

Registering to vote in Colorado prior to filing the lawsuit against the Prince, appears to have been a “calculated” move on Ms Guiffre’s part claimed the lawyers. She had allegedly moved to Australia around one year previous to that, but is being perceived by the Duke’s legal team as trying to support her claim of being a resident of Colorado, as reported by thesun.co.uk.

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