AFP
New York (AFP) – Britain’s Prince Andrew on Friday filed a motion requesting a New York court dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit against him, a court document showed.
Attorneys for the Duke of York said in the filing that Andrew “respectfully moves to dismiss plaintiff Virginia Giuffre’s complaint.”
Giuffre sued Andrew in August, claiming he sexually assaulted her more than 20 years ago when she was 17 and a minor under US state law.
Andrew, 61, has been not been criminally charged and has repeatedly and strenuously denied the allegations.
Last month, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son accepted that he had been served legal papers in the case and was instructed to respond to the lawsuit by October 29.
His lawyers asked a Manhattan district court that the case be dismissed “for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”
Alternatively, they asked that Giuffre, 38, “provide a more definitive statement of her allegations.”
“Prince Andrew respectfully requests the court hold oral argument on his motion,” said the short statement.
Giuffre alleges that Andrew sexually abused her at the London home of socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
She also said he assaulted her at the New York home of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, as well as at Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Guiffre alleges Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges in 2019, lent her out for sex with his wealthy and powerful associates.
Andrew has rarely been seen in public since he was forced to quit the royal frontline in 2019 for failing to distance himself from Epstein.
Maxwell is due to go on trial in New York on November 29 on charges that she recruited underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She has pleaded not guilty.
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