Prince Andrew is lying low at the Queen’s remote Balmoral estate — sweating over the impact of a civil court case in New York brought by the woman who says he raped her when she was under age and a sex trafficking victim.
The Duke of York — who denies any wrongdoing and once rejected Virginia Giuffre’s claim that he perspired heavily by insisting he ‘cannot sweat’ — faces huge damages if the court backs her.
Ms Giuffre said in court papers: ‘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.’
Yesterday, as Ms Giuffre’s lawyer said his ‘time’s up’, Andrew travelled to the 50,000-acre Scottish estate where his mother spends summer while lawyers held crisis talks over the case launched in the US.
Loyal ex-wife Sarah Ferguson has joined them there and the Queen’s lawyers put out a reminder to press photographers that Balmoral is a private estate.
His dog arrived at Balmoral in a separate car an hour before he was pictured in Balmoral, suggesting he could be planning a lengthy stay.
Ms Giuffre said she first had sex with Andrew in 2000 at the London home of his friend Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, who denies wrongdoing but is due to stand trial over trafficking teenage girls for their billionaire pal Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein killed himself in jail awaiting trial in August 2019.
Then aged 17 and called Virginia Roberts, she was ‘lent out for sexual purposes’ and ‘compelled by express or implied threats by Epstein, Maxwell and/or Prince Andrew to engage in sexual acts’ with the duke, the papers added.
And she ‘feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell and Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth and authority’.
In November 2019, Andrew told BBC Newsnight he was at a Pizza Express in Woking with his daughters on the day she claims he had sex with her after an evening at Tramps nightclub in London where he had ‘sweated profusely’.
He cast doubt on a photo showing his hand around her waist and denied having sex with her later in New York and on Epstein’s Caribbean island.
But he invited Epstein to daughter Beatrice’s 18th party in 2006 after the financier was charged with procuring a minor for prostitution. And he defended not ending the 12-year friendship after Epstein was jailed, as ‘my judgment was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable’.
The duke later stepped back from royal activities and promised to help the probe into Epstein and Maxwell. But ex-New York prosecutor Geoffrey Berman claimed he offered ‘zero co-operation’.
There was no response to the new claims from his legal representatives.
The FBI has not brought charges and he cannot be extradited for a civil case.
But lawyers warned the case could cost him ‘millions and millions’ and pile pressure on UK police to investigate.
Prof Melissa Murray, of New York University, said: ‘With this suit pending, and Maxwell about to go to trial, there may be even more temptation for her to co-operate and provide more information about all of the individuals who were in the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein — and that could, allegedly, include the prince himself.’
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