US lawyer Allred on go ahead of Prince Andrew suit

A prominent U.S. lawyer commented Wednesday on a U.S. judge's refusal to dismiss a civil lawsuit against Britain’s Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17.

Speaking to British broadcaster Sky, Gloria Allred, who has featured in some high profile cases, said she thought "it was very unlikely" that the judge would rule in favour of Andrew given the type of questions that the Prince's lawyers had been asked.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected an argument by Andrew’s lawyers that Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit should be thrown out at an early stage because of an old legal settlement she had reached with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier she claims set up sexual encounters with the prince.

Kaplan said the $500,000 settlement between Epstein and Giuffre didn’t involve the prince and didn’t bar a suit against him now.

Allred believed the ambiguity of the settlement didn't help the Prince in his efforts to dismiss the lawsuit.

"Because it was ambiguous as to which third parties or which third party beneficiary, if any it would apply to, I thought the odds were against Prince Andrew, and that turned out to be correct," she said.

The lawyer also confirmed the judge's statement that he was not there to rule on the allegations in the complaint adding that a jury will be needed to make that decision.

Allred did stress the situation going forward could be very uncomfortable for the Prince, suggesting he may have to show more caution than he may have shown previously in a BBC interview on the situation.

"When he did the BBC interview some time ago, he was not having to testify under oath, of course, we all hoped he would tell the truth, even though he's not under oath, but now he's going to be under oath, and that's going to have, he's going to have to be very careful about what his answers are," she said.

Giuffre sued the 61-year-old Andrew in August, saying she was coerced into sexual encounters with him in 2001 by Epstein and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre said she was sexually abused by Andrew at Maxwell’s London home, at Epstein’s New York mansion and his estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Andrew's lawyers had said the lawsuit lacked specificity and was disqualified by the deal she reached in 2009 with lawyers for Epstein.

The prince himself has strenuously denied Giuffre’s allegations.

IMAGE: AP