Prince Andrew runs a “terrible criminal risk” if he decides to reopen his sexual abuse case, his accuser’s lawyer has warned.
David Boies, the lawyer for the Duke’s accuser Virginia Giuffre, challenged Prince Andrew to contact him if he wanted to overturn their multi-million settlement.
“He’s got my telephone number,” Mr Boies said.
Asked if he thought the Duke would make that call, the lawyer told Piers Morgan on TalkTV: “I do not, because he knows that if he comes back, he’s going to be subject to exactly the same scrutiny, exactly the same deposition, exactly the same trial that caused him to settle in the first place.”
Ms Giuffre accused the Duke of sexually abusing her three times in 2001, when she was 17, below the legal age of consent in some US states.
She sued him in August 2020, setting in train a bitter six-month legal battle that was eventually settled with what is believed to be a $12 million payment last February.
The Independent revealed that people close to Prince Andrew were concerned he is cut off from friends and “becoming a recluse” amid plans to challenge his settlement with Ms Giuffre.
Sources close to the disgraced royal say he is “desperate” for redemption but has failed to come to terms with being exiled from royal duties.
“There are fears he’s making judgements in isolation and only speaking to his lawyer,” sources told The Independent. “He’s seeing nobody, there’s a real element of isolation there, it feels like he’s becoming a recluse.”
But Mr Boies said that the Duke could only reopen the legal process if both sides were in agreement.
“All he has to do is ask,” he said. “He can’t unless we let him. Virginia would have to let him come back and reopen it, but if he wants to reopen it, he’s got my telephone number. His lawyer’s got my telephone number.”
Mr Boies added that their civil case was settled shortly before the Duke was due to give a deposition under oath.
He said the royal “would have been taking a terrible criminal risk" to appear for a deposition, which would have been extremely difficult for him.
He added: “If you lie to an interviewer, you may embarrass yourself, if you lie in a deposition, you go to jail.”
Mr Boies said Andrew’s infamous Newsnight interview “gave a lot of ammunition” and strongly suggested the Duke would not want to sit for a deposition.
“He had said so many things and his advisers had said so many things to the press on his behalf that he was going to have a lot of difficulty I think reconciling those things with the factual evidence, testimony that people had given. Not just my client but other people,” Mr Boies said.
Asked whether he had any doubts about the Duke’s guilt, Mr Boies replied: “Unless you’re there, unless you’re there witnessing… unless you’ve got a videotape, you never know personally what happened. All you can do is look at the evidence and the evidence was very strong.”
