Prince Andrew’s defense argues that one of the complainants could have “false memories”

At the beginning of the trial of the prince Andrew of England, accused of alleged sexual abuse of a minor, Virginia Giuffre, the defense of the son of Elizabeth II argues that the youngI might have false memories” and asks for statements from his close circle to corroborate his statements. The prince’s lawyers, now stripped of his titles, argue that they want to “verify the veracity of his allegations.”

As reflected in the court documents of this case, centralized in the New York court, the lawyers of Prince Andrew they have asked to question Giuffre’s husband, Robert Giuffre, to explain the family finances and how he met his wife in 2002. Likewise they want their psychologist to testify, Judith Lightfoot, about Giuffre’s diagnosis, the issues discussed in her sessions, or the medications she prescribed; as well as to inspect his notes on the patient and know his “opinions” on what the complainant alleges and “false memory theory“. In the list of possible witnesses claimed in this trial, Andrés’s former personal assistant, Robert Olney, would also be found to give details of Andrés’s relationship with the pederast Jeffrey Epstein.

The objective, argues the prince’s defense, would be to check if the young woman’s statements “have changed repeatedly over the years”, because according to Prince Andrew’s lawyers the whistleblower’s accusation could be based on “false memories”. Likewise, the lawyers try to verify the veracity of the affirmations of the young woman, who denounced having been “under threat of death” by Epstein and Maxwell and who suffers “serious emotional and psychological damage“.

human trafficking

Giuffre, for his part, has consistently denounced for years that he was sex trafficking victim as a teenager, around 2001, by the late businessman Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-partner Ghislaine Maxwell – recently convicted of such crimes – to have sex with the prince. The complainant alleges that Prince he abused her when she was 17, allegedly a victim of the human trafficking network orchestrated by Epstein, who took his own life in prison after being arrested in 2019.

The prince, for his part, has denied the accusations. and has tried to knock down the civil complaint filed by Giuffre, appealing as the main argument to an out-of-court agreement signed by the plaintiff and by Epstein in 2009 and according to which the victim would have agreed not to take any legal action against other people.

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The case was about to be filed at the request of the prince’s defense, which pointed to this confidentiality agreement as an argument for not carrying out the trial. But as it transpired last Wednesday, the judge in the case refused to file the complaint filed against Prince Andrew and keep the investigation open. Currently, the case is in an evidence gathering phase which will last until mid-July and the trial before a jury is expected to begin between September and December of this year.