It’s six weeks since Prince Andrew settled out of court with his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, for a sum estimated at £12m. Cheap at the price, it was suggested, if the money (source unexplained) prevented sexual assault charges and a public trial ruining his mother’s platinum jubilee. Whatever’s left to be ruined, that is, after mixed results from the Cambridges’ vintage-inspired Caribbean visit in which only Kate’s elaborate wardrobe signalled that anything had changed since 1953.
Since Andrew testified in the settlement to a hitherto unsuspected concern for victims of sex trafficking, along with a newfound regret for knowing Jeffrey Epstein, the deal was also welcomed as a victory for Giuffre’s fellow survivors. A lawyer for Sarah Ransome, one of those abused by Epstein, called the settlement a “banner day”; survivors had “been heard and were no longer silenced”.
