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Virginia Giuffre Files Lawsuit Accusing Prince Andrew of Rape

Ms. Giuffre, one of the most outspoken of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers, said in a lawsuit that Andrew, the Duke of York, had sexually abused her when she was 17.

Ms. Giuffre, center, said in a lawsuit filed in New York on Monday that Mr. Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell forced her to have sex with the prince.Credit...Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

Jonah E. Bromwich and

Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers, sued Prince Andrew in New York on Monday, saying that the scion of Britain’s royal family had raped and sexually abused her when she was 17.

Ms. Giuffre, 38, had said previously in legal filings that Mr. Epstein, a financier who was accused of sexually exploiting dozens of women and girls, offered her to Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, for sex multiple times when she was a teenager.

In her lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, she repeated those accusations, saying the prince had committed acts of sexual assault and battery that caused her severe and lasting damage. She is asking for damages to be determined by the court.

Prince Andrew, 61, the Duke of York, has denied Ms. Giuffre’s accusations, and he has said he has “no recollection” of meeting her. After giving what was widely considered a disastrous television interview about his relationship with Mr. Epstein, the prince announced in 2019 that he was withdrawing from public life.

Lawyers for the prince did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Press representatives at Buckingham Palace could not immediately be reached for comment, and the press office at the British Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

David Boies, a lawyer for Ms. Giuffre, said that the lawsuit would likely rely on a method for suing people outside of normal jurisdiction, which would require that papers be served within the United Kingdom. If Prince Andrew were difficult to locate, he said, the court could order that the papers be sent to a representative of the prince. But Mr. Boies said he expected a response.

“I don’t think he’s going to try to stonewall the court,” he said.

Asked why Ms. Giuffre had filed the suit now, Mr. Boies cited a New York statute, expiring in the coming days, that extended the window during which people could file lawsuits alleging they had been sexually abused as children.

“We didn’t want to wait for the last minute,” he said.

Ms. Giuffre filed her suit almost exactly two years after Mr. Epstein hanged himself in a federal jail in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors had accused him of sexually exploiting dozens of women and girls in New York and Florida.

Shortly after Mr. Epstein’s death, Geoffrey S. Berman, then the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said that his office had not completed its inquiry into the alleged sex-trafficking conspiracy and that the government was committed to standing up for the “brave young women” Mr. Epstein had abused. William P. Barr, the attorney general at the time, also vowed to bring criminal charges against anyone who helped Mr. Epstein.

The investigation into Mr. Epstein also renewed attention on his relationships with prominent figures in the political, academic and business spheres. His social orbit included two American presidents, Bill Clinton and Donald J. Trump; billionaires like Bill Gates and the retail magnate Leslie Wexner; and Prince Andrew.

The prince had pledged to aid the investigation into allegations of sex trafficking by Mr. Epstein and his associates, including Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and friend of Prince Andrew’s who has been accused of recruiting girls and women for Mr. Epstein to abuse. But Mr. Berman said last January that the prince had not cooperated.

“To date, Prince Andrew has provided zero cooperation,” Mr. Berman said then. At a news conference in March 2020, he said the prince had “completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation.”

At the time, Prince Andrew’s lawyers responded by saying that he had offered his assistance “on at least three occasions.”

Asked on Monday whether there had been any change in the prince’s posture with regard to cooperating with the federal investigation into Mr. Epstein and his associates, Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the United States attorney in Manhattan, declined to comment.

Ms. Giuffre’s lawsuit accuses the prince of committing sex abuse in New York City, and of raping her at Ms. Maxwell’s home in London, saying that he, Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell had forced her to have intercourse with the prince against her will.

The filing includes a picture of the prince with his arm around Ms. Giuffre’s waist and Ms. Maxwell smiling in the background, and says that the picture was taken at Ms. Maxwell’s home.

Ms. Maxwell was charged in March with the sex trafficking of a 14-year-old girl who federal prosecutors said she had groomed, and later paid, to engage in sexual acts with Mr. Epstein. She has denied any wrongdoing and is being held without bail while awaiting trial.

The indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, said that on multiple occasions from 2001 to 2004, the teen had provided nude massages to Mr. Epstein at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate, during which he engaged in sex acts with her.

The charges filed against Ms. Maxwell this year went further than those in an earlier indictment that accused her of helping Mr. Epstein recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, but did not include sex-trafficking allegations.

Ms. Maxwell, who has faced similar allegations in civil suits, was one of four women named as possible co-conspirators and granted immunity from prosecution in a widely criticized plea bargain that Mr. Epstein struck with federal prosecutors in Florida more than a decade ago.

Jonah E. Bromwich is a courts reporter for the Metro desk. More about Jonah E. Bromwich

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Epstein Accuser Files a Lawsuit Accusing Prince Andrew of Rape. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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