Legal analyst on Epstein accuser suing Prince Andrew

One of Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accusers launched legal action in the US against the UK's Prince Andrew on Monday, taking accusations that she has repeatedly publicly lodged against him, including that he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, to a formal venue.

Lawyers for Virginia Giuffre filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, where Epstein was charged criminally with sex trafficking a month before he killed himself at age 66 in August 2019 in an adjacent federal jail where he was ordered to await trial.

Albert D'Aquino, a lawyer in New York whose firm has dealt with many cases under the Child Victims Act, said the next stage in the process would be for Giuffre's lawyers to serve Prince Andrew with the complaint.

"If he doesn't answer the lawsuit, the plaintiff's lawyers would probably move pretty aggressively to demonstrate to the court that he has been properly served under The Hague Convention and that the time allowed for him to submit an answer to the complaint has expired", D'Aquino said.

Giuffre has repeatedly made her allegations against Epstein, his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and Andrew, but the lawsuit was the first time she has directly confronted Andrew in such a formal setting.

It steps up public relations pressure on the prince, even if he remains beyond the reach of the courts.

D'Aquino said the prince would need to weigh up a number of outcomes when deciding how to respond, adding that "it's probably a question that is going to depend on more on how public opinion would be viewed of that decision than legally what it would mean to him," D'Aquino said.

According to the lawsuit, which sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, the prince abused Giuffre on multiple occasions when she was under the age of 18.

In late 2019, Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight that he never had sex with Giuffre.

He said he has "no recollection" of ever meeting her and told an interviewer there are "a number of things that are wrong" about Giuffre's account, which alleges the encounter occurred in 2001.

"I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened," Andrew said.

The interview was widely panned by critics who said Andrew seemed insensitive to Epstein's victims.

Afterward, the prince quit royal duties.

IMAGE: AP