Sex-assault accuser blasts Prince Andrew, demands he stop hiding ‘behind palace walls’
Attorneys for accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre blasted Prince Andrew on Thursday for playing a “game of a hide and seek behind palace walls” after the royal has spent weeks dodging receipt of her sex-assault lawsuit, according to a new federal filing in the case.
“Ms. Giuffre believes she has already properly served Prince Andrew, and the Central Authority of the United Kingdom has accepted her request to serve him itself,” wrote David Boies in the motion. “Service is not intended to be a game of a hide and seek behind palace walls.”
Giuffre’s lawyers chronicled the extensive efforts they’ve made to ensure Andrew, 61, is properly served — including emailing, mailing and hand-delivering the papers to the UK High Court, his attorneys, his royal office and his home.
The motion includes a photograph of an envelope containing the complaint addressed to the Royal Lodge and partially deposited into a British mailbox, with a red first-class stamp bearing the visage of Andrew’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
In the latest Manhattan federal court filing, Giuffre’s lawyers ask US District Judge Lewis Kaplan to rule that the royal has been properly notified of the lawsuit — despite his lawyers’ assertions to the contrary on technical grounds.
The Prince’s British lawyers, Gary Bloxsome and Daniel Cundy, challenged the decision of the UK High Court to accept Boies’ request for it to serve the complaint on the royal.
The attorneys argued that Boies wasn’t the appropriate person to make the service request because he isn’t a “judicial officer” as defined by English law and the Hague Service Convention —international rules that govern how parties in different countries notify each other about claims against them.
Senior Master of the Queen’s Bench Division, Barbara Fontaine, who oversees the High Court, said she’d have to convene a hearing to decide the matter — further delaying service of the lawsuit.
But the legal quibble would likely be irrelevant as Judge Kaplan in New York already indicated that he would order an alternative form of service.
Andrew’s attorneys argued Monday at the first hearing in the case that a secret 2009 settlement Giuffre struck with late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein would absolve the Duke of all liability — but they had no way to get their hands on it as it was under seal.
Giuffre’s suit alleges that she was 17 when she was forced to have sex with the monarch’s middle son at the direction of his longtime pal Epstein and cohort Ghislaine Maxwell — who allegedly operated a sex-trafficking ring that lent out girls to rich and powerful men.
Epstein hanged himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. Maxwell is locked up in Brooklyn on allegations she recruited underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She has pleaded not guilty.
The Duke’s Los Angeles-based lawyer, Andrew Brettler, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
