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A legal document Prince Andrew’s lawyer believes will stop the civil sex lawsuit against the royal is expected to be unsealed and made public today.
According to several reports, the document is a 2009 settlement agreement that was reached between Virginia Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ms. Guiffre is suing the Queen’s son for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.
She claims she was trafficked by late financier, Epstein, to have sex with Andrew when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law. She is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars.
Andrew has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him.
The duke has been back in the spotlight over the past week after his friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on five counts relating to sex trafficking last week, one of which directly involved Ms. Giuffre.
Maxwell now faces the rest of her life in jail after she was found guilty of helping to procure teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Andrew B Brettler, Andrew’s lawyer, has argued at a previous hearing that Ms. Giuffre had entered into a ‘settlement agreement’ that would end her lawsuit against the duke.
Mr. Brettler previously told a New York hearing the agreement ‘releases Prince Andrew and others from any purported liability arising from the claims Ms. Giuffre asserted against Prince Andrew here’.
US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan, who is presiding over the civil case, is due to hold a video teleconference on Tuesday when a request by the duke’s legal team to dismiss the case will be heard.
Judge Kaplan last week refused an attempt by Andrew’s lawyers to halt the civil proceedings while questions over where Ms. Giuffre’s lives were dealt with.
