PRINCE Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts’s secret deal with Jeffrey Epstein has been released by a judge.
The Duke of York’s legal team had been hoping the document could be key to letting him off the hook as her lawsuit against him comes to court tomorrow.
The document reveals the terms of a $500,000 payout from Epstein’s estate to Virginia, who was abused and trafficked by the multimillonaire paedophile.
Andrews’ lawyers hope that the terms of the back room agreement mean that Virginia will not be able to carry on with her lawsuit against him.
The newly released 2009 deal details how all other “potential defendants” are excused from “all manner of action and actions of Virginia Roberts”.
Virginia’s settlement had been kept under seal – but judges last month ordered it to be released today unless “good cause” could be shown otherwise.
The Duke’s lawyers maintain that a clause in the agreement precludes him from being sued by Virginia – who alleges he sexually assaulted her three times when she was 17.
The now 38-year-old claims she was enticed by the Duke of York’s pal Ghislaine Maxwell and lured into Epstein’s sexual pyramid scheme.
Maxwell, 60, was this week found guilty of helping to lure vulnerable teens to ex-lover Epstein’s properties for him to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Virginia’s lawyers agreed to hand over a copy of the settlement for Andrew’s lawyers to examine back in October.
Andrew strongly denies all allegations against him and says he had no knowledge of Epstein or Maxwell’s crimes.
But his legal team have been lobbying for it to be placed on public record.
They got their wish after judges Loretta Preska and Lewis Kaplan – who are overseeing the lawsuit against the duke – last month backed the claim and ordered it to be made public.
Andrew has not been charged with any crimes, but the prince is trying to have Virginia’s lawsuit dismissed.
Andrew Brettler, the duke’s lawyer, previously said the undisclosed documents will release him from liability as they cover “royalty” and anyone Virginia might sue.
But her lawyer David Boies countered that it applied “at most” to people involved in underlying litigation in Florida, where Epstein had a home and his “house of horrors”, and Andrew should not use it as a “get out of jail free card”.
However, the secret deal does not explicitly rule out legal action against Andrew, reported The Telegraph.
The document does not name the duke and contains only opaque, broad references to Epstein’s associates
Mr Boies has described the agreement as “irrelevant” to the case.
Andrew has repeatedly denied all allegations against him, which includes rape in the first degree, and his attorney’s have claimed his accuser has a “tendency to change her story”.
They also previously warned that she could be creating “false memories” with her claims.
Virginia alleges she was forced to have sex with the prince by Epstein and his ‘madam’ Maxwell when she was 17 and he was 41 in 2001.
Andrew faces civil litigation suit for the first time over the allegations in the 15-page lawsuit.
His accusers legal team argue she was a “frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her” when she was allegedly abused by Andrew, saying “no person, whether President or Prince, is above the law”.
Andrew is named as the only defendant in the suit, brought under New York state’s Child Victims Act, though Epstein and his former girlfriend Maxwell are mentioned frequently throughout.
Ms Giuffre is seeking unknown amounts of compensation and punitive damages over the allegations.
She claims she feared for her life when she was allegedly forced to have sex with Andrew, who is accused of having been aware of her age and status as a “sex-trafficking victim”.
In an infamous Newsnight interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in November 2019, Andrew denied claims that he slept with Ms Giuffre and said he had “no recollection” of ever meeting her.
He also said he has no memory of the well-known photograph of him with his arm around Ms Giuffre’s waist at Maxwell’s house, and has questioned whether it was his own hand in the image.
The fallout from the interview saw the royal criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards Epstein’s victims and a lack of remorse over his friendship with disgraced financier.
Andrew has previously pledged to assist with any investigation into his former friend, but there has been a long running war of words between his team and US prosecutors about how much assistance he has offered them.
Epstein hanged himself in his prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking offences.
And meanwhile Maxwell faces potentially spending the rest of her life in prison after she was convicted her role in the scheme.
More to follow…
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