Prince Andrew has been served at his home in Britain with the paperwork for the bombshell lawsuit from his accuser who sued him in a US court.
According to a document filed on Friday, an affidavit of service was served at the Duke of York's home in Windsor, England on August 27.
An agent working on behalf of Virginia Roberts, who claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, handed them over to police officers at the property.
The agent had tried the day before but was rebuffed and told that staff had been ‘primed’ not to accept any documents, the court papers state.
When the agent returned the next day, the police officers at the gate of Royal Lodge, Andrew’s official residence, changed their mind and allowed him to leave the paperwork.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London, Britain, in 2001. Prince Andrew was served at his home in Britain with paperwork for the bombshell sexual assault lawsuit
Virginia Roberts (left) claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17. Prince Andrew (right in April) has denied the allegations and has not been charged
Service of the papers starts the clock ticking for Andrew to respond or face a default judgement.
Normally defendants have 21 days to respond but a judge may extend that given that the Duke is not in the US.
The development comes ahead of the first hearing in the case which is set for Monday when Andrew’s lawyers could identify themselves for the first time.
Roberts last month accused Andrew in a federal court in New York of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times on the orders of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The allegations says they are ‘including but not limited to sexual misconduct as defined (as) rape in the third degree, rape in the first degree’.
The documents filed on Friday state that Cesar Sepulveda with British corporate intelligence company GCW intelligence went to Andrew’s home on August 26 at 9.30am. where he met with security staff at the gate, handed over a business card and was asked to wait.
The document says that ‘after some time’ Sepulveda met with a Metropolitan police officer who tried to call to see whether he could be let up.
After more time passed Andrew’s head of security arrived and had ‘apparently experienced the same difficulties and could not raise anyone in charge there’.
The document states: ‘The Metropolitan Police Officer/head of security could not locate the defendants private secretary, or anyone senior and the dependent was told that the security there had been instructed not to allow anyone attending there for the purpose of serving court papers onto the grounds of the property and at the time they had been told not to accept service of any court process’
According to a document filed on Friday (above), an affidavit of service was served at the Duke of York's home in Windsor, England on August 27
Sepulveda said that the officers said that anything he left with them ‘would not be forwarded to the defendant and it appeared from the attendance that the security staff had already been primed not to allow anyone access onto the property to serve court process and had been instructed not to accept any service’.
The following day Sepulveda returned to the Royal Lodge and a police officer at the entrance called a different supervisor who said that the documents could be left with the cops at the gate.
The material would then be ‘forwarded on to the legal team’.
The document states That Sepulveda ‘did enquire whether it was possible to meet personally with the defendant, but he was told the was not possible and although (Sepulveda) did ask the whereabouts of the defendant, the Metropolitan Police Officer said that he could not answer any questions’
The lawsuit was filed under a law in New York that relates to child abuse as Roberts was considered a minor at the time under the state law.
It lists Roberts as the plaintiff and the defendant as ‘Prince Andrew, Duke of York a/k/a Andrew Albert Christian Edward’ as the defendant.
The lawsuit claims that ‘Prince Andrew intentionally committed battery by sexually assaulting Plaintiff when she was a minor.
‘On multiple occasions Prince Andrew intentionally touched (Roberts) in an offensive and sexual manner without her consent’.
Andrew has always strongly denied any wrongdoing and claimed he has never even met Roberts, now a mother-of-three agd 38 living in Australia who goes by her married name, Virginia Giuffre.
In a statement to ABC News when the lawsuit was filed, Roberts said: ‘I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me.
‘The powerful and the rich are not exempt from being held responsible for their actions. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but one can reclaim her life by speaking out and demanding justice.
‘I did not come to this decision lightly. As a mother and a wife, my family comes first. I know that this action will subject me to further attacks by Prince Andrew and his surrogates. But I knew that if I did not pursue this action, I would be letting them and victims everywhere down’.
Roberts has made similar allegations before in US court documents but this is the first time she has sued the Duke directly.
She claims that the first time she was forced to have sex with Andrew was at the London townhouse of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s alleged madam.
The second time, in early 2001 was at Epstein’s New York mansion.
Jeffrey Epstein was found hanging in his cell in Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial
The lawsuit states: ‘During this encounter, Maxwell forced Plaintiff, a child, and another victim to sit on Prince Andrew’s lap as Prince Andrew touched her.
‘During his visit to New York, Prince Andrew forced Plaintiff to engage in sex acts against her will’.
The third incident was on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
During each incident, Roberts was ‘compelled by express or implied threats by Epstein, Maxwell and/or Prince Andrew to engage in sexual acts’ with the Duke.
Roberts ‘feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth, and authority’, it is claimed.
Andrew allegedly had sex with Roberts knowing she was a victims of sex trafficking, it is claimed.
The Duke also knew her age from ‘communications with Epstein and Maxwell’.
The lawsuit claims: ‘Prince Andrew sexually abused (Roberts) for the purpose of gratifying his sexual desires’.
The two formal allegations are battery and infliction of emotional distress.
Under the claim for battery, the lawsuit states Andrew’s actions ‘constitute sexual offenses as defined in (New York law) including but not limited to sexual misconduct as defined (as) rape in the third degree, rape in the first degree’.
It also claims the Duke’s conduct amounted to ‘forcible touching, sexual abuse in the third degree, and sexual abuse in the first degree’.
The ‘sexual assault’ Roberts caused her ‘significant emotional and psychological distress and harm’, it is claimed.
The lawsuit states: ‘As a direct and proximate result of Prince Andrew’s criminal acts, Plaintiff has in the past and will in the future continue to suffer substantial damages, including extreme emotional distress, humiliation, fear, psychological trauma, loss of dignity and self-esteem, and invasion of her privacy’.
The filing mentions that Andrew has failed to cooperate with the criminal investigation by the FBI into Epstein and Maxwell, despite promising to do so in his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview.
The lawsuit states: ‘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’.
Under the section of the lawsuit that deals with the formal allegation of intentional infliction of emotional distress, the lawsuit is withering about the Duke.
It says: ‘Prince Andrew’s actions, described above, constitute extreme and outrageous conduct that shocks the conscience.
‘Prince Andrew’s sexual abuse of a child who he knew was a sex-trafficking victim, and when he was approximately 40 years old, goes beyond all possible bounds of decency and is intolerable in a civilized community’.
The lawsuit claims that Andrew was one of the ‘powerful men’ who Epstein loaned Ms Roberts out to for sex.
The document accuses the Duke of ‘publicly feigning ignorance about the scope of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation and sympathy for Epstein’s victims’ then refusing to cooperate with the FBI.
No comments:
Post a Comment