Virginia Giuffre sues Britain's Prince Andrew over sexual assault

Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers, sued Prince Andrew on Monday, alleging that he raped her when she was under 18 and committed other forms of sexual abuse.

Virginia, in a civil complaint filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, accused Andrew of having abused her about two decades ago when she was 17 years old.

The accuser said the prince forced her to have sexual intercourse against her will at the London home of Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Andrew previously denied the allegations and told the BBC in November 2019 he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre, and could not have had sex with her at Maxwell’s home because he had returned that night to his house after a children’s party.

The complaint said Andrew also abused Giuffre at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and on a private island that Epstein owned in the US Virgin Islands.

Giuffre has accused Epstein - who killed himself in a Manhattan jail on Aug 10, 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges - kept her as a “sex slave” with help from Maxwell, alleging that the financer brought her to London to meet the prince.

The complaint alleged the Britain prince of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Giuffre, in her statement, said the lawsuit was brought under the Child Victims Act to allege she was trafficked to him and sexually abused by him.

“I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me,” she said. “The powerful and 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 to reclaim one’s life by speaking out and demanding justice."