The High Court has accepted a request by the Duke of York’s sex abuse accuser to formally contact Prince Andrew over a civil law suit launched against him in the United States
Prince Andrew is set to be served with papers over a sexual abuse case after the alleged former sex slave Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers have asked the UK’s High Court to serve the Duke of York her civil case.
The decision means that lawyers representing Virgina Giuffre should finally be able to serve legal papers to the royal after claiming they could not do so due to Andrew staying at the Queen’s Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
Andrew has so far vehemently denied all of the allegations against him.
The first pre-trial hearing had been held on Monday in New York when the Duke’s attorney Andrew B Brettler said that their legal team had “significant concerns” about the sexual abuse lawsuit.
The lawyer stated that Ms Giuffre had previously entered into a “settlement agreement” that would nullify her case.
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However, despite Andrew being represented in court, his team claimed he has not been officially served the civil case – reported round the world, known as service of the proceedings.
Under the Hague Service Convention, which is a treaty that governs requests between different countries for evidence in either civil or commercial matters, Ms Giuffre’s legal team asked the High Court in London to formally serve Andrew her civil action.
Ms Giuffre is suing the son of the Queen for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. She is seeking unspecified compensation for damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars if her claim succeeds.
Ms Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the Duke of York when she was a minor under US law, although the royal denies this.
She claims that she was trafficked by Andrew’s former close friend and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the Duke of York, when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law, although the royal denies her claims.
After earlier highlighting an issue with the lawsuit’s application, the High Court said later: “The lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre have now provided further information to the High Court, and the High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention.
“The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the convention unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.”
The question regarding whether or not Andrew had been properly served was a major topic at the pre-trial hearing taking place at the US district court for the southern district of New York.
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Mr Brettler said that during the hearing, that was held via telephone conference, Prince Andrew’s team contested “the validity of service to date”, adding that he has not yet been properly served under either UK or international law.
David Boies, who is representing Ms Giuffre, said that the official complaint had been “delivered to the last known address of the defendant”, he added that the documents had also been sent “by Royal Mail“.
He has previously said Andrew “cannot hide behind wealth and palace walls” and must respond to the allegations.
