SARAH Ferguson is likely to be subpoenaed in Prince Andrew’s sex case as lawyers want to grill her over the Pizza Express alibi, reports claim.
Courtiers concluded that since the Dutchess’s whereabouts were a part of the alibi, she was likely to be called to testify by Virginia Roberts Giuffre‘s legal team.
The Duke’s legal team is prepared to fight the allegations against him but if the case reaches the discovery phase, he will have to hand over personal documents and information, reported the Sunday Telegraph.
It would also mean that members of his close environment could be called to testify, including the Duchess of York.
The Duke of York, 61, is battling a lawsuit filed by Ms Giuffre, 38, which claims he sexually abused her three times when she was 17.
The Prince has always vehemently denied he has had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Ms Roberts.
Bradley Simon, a defence attorney specialising in complex civil litigation, told the Sunday Telegraph: “They’re going to ask for a kitchen sink.
“They’re going to seek every correspondence, phone logs, emails, diaries. They’re going to go after people who were with him. It’s going to be open season.”
During a BBC interview, Andrew suggested that the night he was alleged to have had sex with Roberts, March 10, 2001, he was actually at a Pizza Express birthday party in Woking.
He had said at the time: “That couldn’t have happened because the date being suggested — the 10th of March — I was at home with the children.
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“I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at about 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
“And then because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other is there.”
It comes as it has been claimed that Prince Andrew had the “time of his life” at a dinner party hosted by Jeffrey Epstein, in a Manhattan mansion in 2010.
Earlier this week, Andrew was seen waving as he ended his three-week Balmoral hideaway.
The Duke of York had been hiding out in the Queen’s 50,000-acre Scottish estate to avoid US lawyers trying to serve sex abuse lawsuit papers on him.
On Friday, lawyers officially conceded that the legal papers relating to Virginia Roberts’ sex assault claims have been served to the duke’s legal team.
The Duke has until October 29 to respond to the civil suit while a court hearing is due in New York on November 3.
Representatives of Prince Andrew and Sara Ferguson have been reached for comment.
