Queen’s son Prince Andrew said that “memories fade and false memories are created” as he described Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse complaint as “unintelligible” and deliberately vague. Royal’s lawyers accuse Ms Giuffre of ‘changing her story’, The Daily has learned.
New York court got another batch of the documents regarding a sexual scandal, at the centre of which was late Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. The legal team of Prince Andrew argue that as Virginia Giuffre was 17 at the time of the alleged offences. In other words, the age of consent in New York, so, she must prove that she was forced to have sex with royal.
Ms Giuffre’s attempts to implicate duke by “implied threat” 20 years on could simply not be verified, the lawyers say.
Meanwhile, the NY court papers also reiterate that the “plain language” of a 2009 financial agreement Ms Giuffre made with Mr Epstein prevents her from suing the 61-year-old senior royal.
‘False memory’ syndrome can be triggered by media coverage
Ms Giuffre, 38, has sued Prince Andrew for unspecified damages, alleging that he sexually abused her on three occasions in 2001 when she was 17. Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist who gave evidence in OJ Simpson’s defence, will testify that false memory syndrome can be triggered by “suggestive activities”, such as media coverage.
Prince Andrew’s latest legal memorandum describes Ms Giuffre’s civil claim against him as “ambiguous at best and unintelligible at worst.”
In its efforts to defence Prince Andrew, his legal team in October launched a rebuttal of Ms Giuffre’s “threadbare” complaint. The lawyers claimed she had profited from her association with Epstein but also was willing to “milk the publicity” for all she could with “increasingly salacious and inconsistent accounts”.
In fact, the sealed 2009 settlement is said to include a clause that bars Ms Giuffre from taking further legal action against some of Epstein’s associates.
