Prince Andrew shouted at female gardener over wrongly-cut trees after being served sex abuse writ
UNDER-pressure Prince Andrew shouted at a female gardener over wrongly-cut trees — just days after he was served with his sex case writ.
The Duke left the flunkey “shaken and upset” in Windsor after he had been served his sex-abuse writ by accuser Virginia Giuffre.
An insider said: “He was over the top.”
He “shouted and yelled” at the flunkey who wasn’t to blame, it is claimed.
A royal insider said: “Andrew is under a great deal of stress but it’s no reason to take it out on staff doing their job.
“She had nothing to do with the damage and felt it was unfair. After all, it’s only a few saplings.”
The gardener was part of a team working on the young trees in October when the Duke stomped out of his 31-room, £30million Royal Lodge mansion on the Queen’s Windsor estate.
His outburst came soon after he had been served with a sex abuse writ by Virginia Giuffre, a trafficking victim of the prince’s former pals Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Numerous people are said to have witnessed his tantrum and haranguing.
And it follows revelations from his former maid about his “entitled” behaviour — claiming he made her run up flights of stairs to close curtains he was sat right next to.
The gardener, who The Sun on Sunday is not identifying, still works for the Queen at Windsor Castle but no longer tends the grounds of Andy’s home.
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The insider said of the bust-up: “There was a team of gardeners tending the grounds and Andrew spotted a problem with saplings.
“He started screaming and shouting, ‘What have you done?’ The gardener was very upset and shaken.
“She has always been considered conscientious and hard-working. Andrew was over the top.
"You just don’t talk to people like that no matter who you are.”
The Queen employs a team to tend the 98 hectares at Royal Lodge, three miles from Windsor Castle.
The row in the garden erupted as Andrew’s lawyers were caught up in a battle with Ms Giuffre’s legal team.
Bombshell papers outlining her claims were first handed to protection officers at the Royal Lodge on August 27 — when the Duke was in Balmoral.
For a while there was a dispute from Andrew’s side that the writ had been correctly served in the UK.
On September 21 lawyers for Ms Giuffre stated in a court filing the writ had also been served to and received by Andrew’s attorney Andrew Brettler in Los Angeles.
The Duke strongly denies allegations that he forced Ms Giuffre to have sex when she was 17, and insists he has never met her.
By late September he had returned from Balmoral to the Royal Lodge where he lives with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
The Duke spent most of October hammering out his legal strategy ahead of the first sex abuse hearing in New York in November.
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Then the Queen suffered a health scare in the middle of October and spent a night in hospital after cancelling a tour of Northern Ireland.
In the same month Andrew was feeling the heat from his own family.
Prince William was reported to have decided the Duke was damaging to the Royal Family with all the claims swirling around him.
It was also revealed that month that Andrew’s siblings Charles, Anne and Edward had secretly held a summit at which they decided there was no way back for Andrew in public royal life.
And sources close to William revealed to The Sunday Times he felt Andrew had an “ungracious and ungrateful” attitude towards his position, and that public opposition to his uncle’s behaviour was “dangerous”.
One added: “William is no fan of Uncle Andrew.”
Last week the Duke’s former maid Charlotte Briggs, now 47, described to The Sun how he swore at her over a pair of heavy drapes.
She claimed he made her run up four flights of stairs to close his curtains while he was sat next to them.
Andrew blew his top at a tiny gap inbetween them and yelled at then 21-year-old Charlotte: “Can’t you f*****g do anything right?”
She said she was left in tears when he “threw his weight around”.
Charlotte, of Halifax, West Yorks, added: “This man fought for his country in the Falklands but couldn’t stand up to close his own curtains.
“It was utterly ridiculous but spoke volumes about him.
“Andrew definitely put a downer on things. He thinks he’s above everyone.”
Andrew was stripped of his royal roles by the Queen earlier this month.
His civil sex-abuse trial in New York is scheduled for the autumn.
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It is understood no investigation has been launched into the trees outburst.
Buckingham Palace did not want to comment on the row last night.
