Prince Andrew served lawsuit in the US over alleged Epstein-linked rape

The Duke of York, Prince Andrew, has been served with a civil lawsuit in the United States by a woman who has accused him of sexual assault.

Andrew was sued sometime in August in a New York court recently for alleged sexual abuse, after the plaintiff, Virginia Giuffre, said she was “lent out” for underage sex by the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Gliffre alleged in the court filing that she was regularly abused by Epstein, and was lent out by him to other powerful men for their sexual purposes, one of them being Prince Andrew.

The lawsuit was sent to the Duke of York’s Los Angeles-based lawyer.

“Dear Mr Brettler, Pursuant to Judge Kaplan’s September 16, 2021, order granting plaintiff’s motion for alternate service (attached), I am serving by email the Summons and Complaint in the above-captioned matter on you in your capacity as counsel for the defendant, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

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“We are also sending the summons and complaint by FedEx to your office at 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2400, Los Angeles, California,” said Giuffre’s legal team in the email sent to Andrew’s American layers.

Under federal laws, the prince has been given exactly 21 days to respond to the lawsuit or face default judgment by the court.

Prince Andrew and his lawyers have strongly denied the allegations against him on several accounts, and his legal team had previously contested all the sexual assault claims made against him.

Britain’s prince had also stated that he had no recollection of meeting her, but the plaintiff had provided a photograph in the court papers which show both Andrew and Virginia at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home before one of the incidents of the alleged sexual abuse.

Compiled by Lerato Maimela