Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre and what has she accused Prince Andrew of?
PRINCE Andrew and Virginia Giuffre reached a “settlement in principle” in the civil sexual abuse lawsuit filed in the US.
Here's everything to know about Virginia Roberts Giuffre and her allegations against the Duke of York.
Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre?
Virginia Roberts - now Virginia Giuffre, 38, is an American-Australian campaigner and a prominent victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein.
She has made claims against Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, as well as Brit socialite Ghislaine Maxwell - Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-lover.
Giuffre alleged in court documents that she was procured by Maxwell, 57, the daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, as a teenage “sex slave” for Epstein.
She released a manuscript just hours before Epstein's death, which added to more than 2,000 documents of a lawsuit pending against the former financier and his pals.
The legal documents were released in a defamation case involving Giuffre, who has claimed in court documents that Prince Andrew slept with her three times.
In 2019, Virginia Roberts has claimed that she had sex with Prince Andrew in a toilet when she was 17, after a night where he had allegedly been plying her with vodka in a posh London club.
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The royal has vehemently denied the accusations against him, branding them "false" and "without foundation".
On February 15, 2022, it was announced that Prince Andrew settled the lawsuit - sparing him a humiliating court battle.
What has Virginia Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of?
Virginia Roberts launched a legal battle against Prince Andrew on August 10, 2021, accusing him of sexually abusing her at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion.
She said it was "past the time for him to be held to account" for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.
But Prince Andrew has strenuously denied her claim he had sex with her.
Lawyers for Ms Giuffre filed the civil suit seeking various damages at a federal court in New York, where the court documents claim she was "lent out for sexual purposes" by convicted sex offender Epstein including while she was still a minor under US law.
The lawsuit specified that that Ms Giuffre was “forced to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will” and lists offences including “rape in the first degree."
Andrew was named as the only defendant in the 15-page suit, brought under New York state's Child Victims Act, though Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell were mentioned frequently throughout.
Ms Giuffre's lawsuit stated: "In this country no person, whether president or prince, is above the law, and no person, no matter how powerless or vulnerable, can be deprived of the law's protection.
"Twenty years ago Prince Andrew's wealth, power, position, and connections enabled him to abuse a frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her. It is long past the time for him to be held to account.
It is alleged in the documents Ms Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, was sexually abused while aged under 18 by the Queen's second son at Maxwell's home in London, at Epstein's New York mansion and at other locations including Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands.
MORE ABOUT VIRGINIA ROBERTS
What did Virginia Giuffre accuse Jeffrey Epstein of?
Virginia brought a defamation case against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging that the pair had sex-trafficked her starting in 2000, when she was known as Virginia Roberts.
Giuffre alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew in his New York mansion, in London, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands in 2001 when she was 17.
Roberts was 18 when she had her third alleged sexual encounter with the royal on Little St James Island, where she says he engaged in an orgy with nine girls, according to court documents.
She said at the time: "Epstein, Andy, approximately eight other young girls and I had sex together.
"The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English.
"Epstein laughed about the fact they couldn’t really communicate, saying that they are the ‘easiest’ girls to get along with.”
Buckingham Palace said: “This relates to proceedings in the United States, to which the Duke of York is not a party.
“Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.
“It is emphatically denied that the Duke had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts.
“Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”
Maxwell was arrested on July 2, 2020, on charges of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors and is appeared via video in a federal court the same day.
In December 2021, 60-year-old Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking and grooming girls for paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, with the pair described as “partners in crime”.
The jury of six women and six men convicted her on five out of six counts as she was found not guilty of enticing a minor to engage in an illegal sex act after more than 40 hours of deliberation.