Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II’s third child, has resolved a civil sexual assault complaint brought against him by Virginia Giuffre in the United States.
Ms Giuffre has been suing the Duke of York, alleging that he sexually attacked her three times when she was 17, claims that he has rejected numerous times.
The duke and Ms Giuffre had struck an out-of-court settlement, according to a letter filed with the US district court on Tuesday, February 15.
It stated that the duke, who makes no admission of guilt, would compensate Ms Giuffre an unknown sum.
Ms Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies wrote to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, jointly with Prince Andrew’s lawyers, to announce the two had struck “a settlement in principle.”
A statement was made.
The duke will give a “significant donation to Ms Giuffre’s foundation in support of victims’ rights,” according to the statement.
Prince Andrew “never intended to damage Ms Giuffre’s character,” according to the statement, and he acknowledged she had “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unwarranted public insults.”
The duke also promised to “express his contrition for his relationship” with Jeffrey Epstein, a late convicted sex offender, by helping the “battle against the ills of sex trafficking, and by assisting its victims.”
He also praised Ms Giuffre’s and other survivors’ “bravery in standing up for themselves and others.”
The out-of-court settlement is supposed to prevent the scandal from causing even more damage by avoiding a potentially catastrophic civil trial.
According to reports, the Royal Family wanted a settlement reached so that the matter would not overshadow the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Prince Andrew was ready to be struck a big blow in his US sex case due to Ghislaine Maxwell before settling out of court yesterday night.
The validity of an infamous photograph of the Duke standing with his arm around his accuser, Virginia Roberts, appeared to be confirmed by a leaked email from the Prince’s pal and now convicted sex trafficker.
Andrew had questioned the photograph, which was alleged to have been taken at Maxwell’s London home in 2001, and his legal team had just this week requested Miss Roberts hand over the original.
Miss Roberts was said to have misplaced the original copy of the image.
The duke’s legal team had claimed it might be a fake, but an email obtained by the Daily Mail shows that even Maxwell, who appears in the background of the photo, believes it to be real.
In the message, sent in 2015, Maxwell says: “It looks real. I think it is.”
