US lawyer Alan Dershowitz urges the Prince to speak up against ‘made-up stories’
London: Royal officials denied that Britain’s Prince Andrew engaged in any “impropriety with underage minors” after he was named in US court documents related to a lawsuit against American financier Jeffrey Epstein.
US lawyer Alan Dershowitz has urged Prince Andrew to fight the “made-up stories”.
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Britain’s Prince Andrew, who is the Duke of York. pic/ap
From 1999 to 2000 In papers filed to a Florida court, an unidentified woman alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein when she was under the age of 18. The encounters took place around 1999 to 2002.
A Buckingham Palace statement said: “This relates to ongoing civil proceedings in the United States, to which the Duke of York (Andrew) is not a party. As such we would not comment on the detail. However, for the avoidance of doubt, any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.”
The woman’s claims, filed on Tuesday, were added to a drawn-out lawsuit filed by two other women who claim they were sexually abused as minors by Epstein.
The billionaire financier was sentenced to prison in 2008 after pleading guilty to child sex offenses. The women want authorities to reconsider a plea that allowed Epstein to avoid serious federal charges and potentially longer prison time. The woman making claims against Prince Andrew — only identified as Jane Doe No.3 — is one of two new accusers asking a West Palm Beach, Florida, judge to allow them to join the existing lawsuit against Epstein.
The royal has not been named as a defendant in that case, and no criminal charges or formal allegations have been made against him.