Britain’s Prince Andrew and his attorneys are avoiding service of notice about a sexual assault lawsuit filed against him last month by an alleged victim of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“Process servers have shown up at his residence, and they have refused to take the summons and refused to let the process servers in to serve,” David Boies, chairman of New York City-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, which represents Virginia Roberts Giuffre, told ABC News. “He has stopped coming out in public. He has been moving around.”
Giuffre, who settled a defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell for an undisclosed amount in 2017, filed suit against Andrew on August 9, charging that he sexually abused her when she was under 18, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Giuffre has previously alleged that Epstein paid her to have sex with the 61-year-old Duke of York while she was 17.
Prince Andrew has denied Giuffre’s allegations.
Boies told ABC that he has followed all the established protocols for serving a foreign citizen with notice of a lawsuit in the United States.
“We don’t have to actually physically serve him with a subpoena. All we have to do is follow certain recognized procedures, which we have done,” Boies said. “We will simply tell the court what we have done, and then it’s up to the court.”
A hearing in the case is set for Monday in Manhattan, where the suit was filed, and Andrew’s attorneys have questioned Boies’ methods.
“[Giuffre’s lawyers] have made several public, indeed well-publicised, attempts at irregular service of these proceedings in this jurisdiction, in at least one case accompanied by a media representative,” Gary Bloxsome, a lawyer with U.K. law firm Blackfords LLP, wrote in a letter to senior master Barbara Fontaine, a British judicial official.
“These have included attempted personal service of our client at his home, the instruction of a private process server, and attempts to email the proceedings not only to this firm, but to barristers (who are not authorised to conduct litigation) who are known to have acted for the Duke. This is regrettable.”
Bloxsome also questioned “the validity of (Giuffre’s) claim” against the prince, noting that a settlement she reached with Epstein in 2009 may release claims against others associated with him.
Boies disagreed with Bloxsome’s contention and said his letter to a British official has no bearing on the lawsuit.
“I don’t know why they wrote what they wrote,” he said. “But unless and until they engage with respect to the complaint that we have filed here in the United States, anything they say is irrelevant.”
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[Featured image: Prince Andrew/Steve Parsons/Pool Photo via AP, file and Virginia Roberts Giuffree/AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, file]
