Epstein case: a complaint filed in New York against Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew, pictured here in June 2014, has been cited in the Epstein case.

A complaint has been filed against him in New York.

AFP PHOTO / DPA / SWEN PFÖRTNER

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

A young American girl, now 38, victim of the vast sex trafficking fomented by Jeffrey Epstein, has filed a complaint against Prince Andrew.

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With our correspondent in London

Sidonie Gaucher

The second son of the Queen of England is still in the headlines.

This time a formal complaint for the three sexual assaults committed on Virginia Giuffre, a minor at the time of the facts.

The complaint, consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), claims that the Duke of York, second son of the Queen of England, is " 

one of the powerful men

 " to whom Virginia Giuffre was " 

handed over in a sexual purpose

 ”when she was the victim between 2000 and 2002 from the age of 16, in the context of the vast sex trafficking for which the financier

Jeffrey Epstein

was charged and imprisoned, before committing suicide in a Manhattan prison in the summer of 2019.

►Also read: Jeffrey Epstein case: Prince Andrew's accuser testifies on the BBC

The accusations made the rounds of the English media.

From the photo where he embraces the young girl, through the alibi of the pizzeria in the suburbs, to his disastrous interview on the BBC, which means he withdraws from public life.

At each media appearance, the prince maintained he had no memory, not knowing how to deny the accusations or explain his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, then organizer of his meetings with Virginia.

"Do not live in silence and fear

 "

With this complaint, Virginia wants Prince Andrew to recognize responsibility for her actions and seek to prove that no man of power should be above the law.

“ 

I hold Prince Andrew responsible for what he did to me. The powerful and the rich are not exempt from accountability. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear,

 ”said Virgnia Giuffre in a statement sent to the media.

Despite Prince Andrew's denials, his association with the American businessman had plunged him into turmoil and forced him to retire from public life.

The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, under a New York state juvenile victims law, which gives a one-year time limit for filing a sexual abuse claim, without a statute of limitations. .

This law, which entered into force in August 2019, still leaves a few days for potential victims to act.

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