Prince Andrew was holed up alone in Windsor last night after pal Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking — and his family left for a ski holiday, reports The Sun.
Attention will now focus on the damages action launched by Ms Roberts, also known as Virginia Giuffre, who is suing the Queen’s son for alleged sexual assault.
She claims she was trafficked by Epstein, the duke’s former friend, to have sex with Andrew when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law. Andrew has denied all the allegations.
Following Maxwell’s conviction on Wednesday, Ms Roberts said she had “lived with the horrors of Maxwell’s abuse” and commended the four women who testified during the trial.
Ingrid Seward, Editor-in-chief, Majesty wrote: “He’s now perceived as a one-time close friend with not only a convicted paedophile, but also a convicted sex trafficker.”
US resident
Lawyers Virginia who says the Duke of York sexually abused her when she was 17 have insisted that she is a US resident even though Andrew’s lawyers say otherwise.
Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers filed their response to papers earlier this week in which Andrew’s lawyers say she is really living in Australia, where she has resided for all but two of the last 19 years.
Lawyers for the duke said the lawsuit she filed in August in Manhattan federal court in which she claimed the prince sexually abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 should not proceed until it is determined whether she is qualified by residency to file the US lawsuit.
They have already asked a judge to toss out the lawsuit on multiple grounds, saying the duke never sexually assaulted Ms Giuffre.
The duke’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, has called the lawsuit “baseless”.
But in a court filing on Thursday, lawyers for Ms Giuffre called the action by Andrew’s attorneys to temporarily halt progression of the lawsuit toward trial a “transparent attempt to delay discovery into his own documents and testimony”.
They said the duke has claimed he has no documents that would be responsive to the majority of requests by Ms Giuffre’s lawyers, including of any communications with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell or the late financier Jeffrey Epstein or relating to his trips to Florida, New York or various locations in London.
And they said he has also denied having documents supporting a claim that he has a medical inability to sweat, an alibi he offered in a media interview.
As for their client’s residence, they said her domicile is in Colorado, where her mother resides, and noted that she is registered to vote there. They said those facts and additional evidence establish her Colorado citizenship.