PRINCE Andrew could face more sex abuse lawsuits in the US due to a potential change in the law – including from a woman who claims she was groped by the disgraced royal.
The Duke of York, 62, settled the rape case brought against him by accuser Virginia Giuffre, 38, for an undisclosed amount thought to be up to $15 million.
Ms Giuffre’s case was allowed by a New York law which gave victims of historic child sex abuse a year to sue their alleged abusers despite the statute of limitations.
Florida hair salon owner Johanna Sjoberg, 42, has repeatedly claimed that Andrew touched her breast in 2001 when she was 21.
So far she would have been able to sue the prince for the alleged sex assault because the child sex abuse law did not apply to her and too much time has gone by.
But new bill which could be signed into law in New York this year would allow victims of adult sex abuse to bring their allegations to court too.
Lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented victims of late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, said: “In New York there is an effort to change the statute of limitations for adult victims of adult sexual abuse.
“The effort is to essentially model it on the Child Victims Act to provide a year during which an adult victim of adult sexual abuse could sue.
“I do not know any other person who might allege that she was wrongfully sexually abused by Prince Andrew, but if there are such people, then they would need the new law.
“That is a bill advancing in the New York legislature. They would need that passing into law.”
New York’s Adults Survivors Act was approved unanimously by the state’s Senate in June last year but has so far stalled in the Assembly.
It could be passed during this session of the legislature, which ends in June.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Senator Brad Hoylman, has said: “Adult survivors of serial sexual assaulters like Jeffrey Epstein have been shut out of our courthouses .
“That ends now.”
SPITTING IMAGE PUPPET
Epstein’s former PA Ms Sjoberg has claimed that her alleged incident with Andrew took place at the the pedophile’s New York townhouse.
She says the prince touched her breast while a latex puppet of Andrew from UK satirical TV show Spitting Image was being used to abuse then 17-year-old Ms Giuffre by Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ms Sjoberg – who was not an alleged victim at the New York trial which found Maxwell, 60, guilty of sex trafficking of minors in December – first told of her encounter with Andrew in 2007.
Described as a “church-going all American brunette” from Maine, she claimed to have met Andrew after arriving at Epstein’s mansion following a day of sightseeing in New York.
She said: “Prince Andrew was there and Ghislaine and a couple of other girls my age.
“Andrew was very charming. I didn’t know exactly who he was but felt that I knew him.
“She (Maxwell) came down with a present for him – a latex puppet of him from Spitting Image.
“We had a picture taken. Virginia, another girl there, sat on a chair and had the puppet on her lap.
“Andrew sat on another chair, I sat on his lap – and he put his hand on my breast.
“Ghislaine put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, then Andrew put his hand on mine.”
‘GROOMED’
Ms Sjoberg has said that she was “groomed” by Epstein and “made a pact with the devil in exchange for excitement and glamour”.
She repeated the claims about Andrew again in court documents unsealed in 2019.
She said: “I just remember someone suggesting a photo, and they told us to go get on the couch.
“And so Andrew and Virginia sat on the couch, and they put the puppet on her lap.
“And so then I sat on Andrew’s lap, and I believe on my volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.”
Andrew has vehemently denied Ms Sjoberg’s allegations against him.
Although he settled his case with Ms Giuffre, he has not admitted her claims that she was “lent” out to him for sex three times when she was 17 in 2001.
Ms Sjoberg declined to comment.
