Prince Andrew can never again DENY he raped Virginia Giuffre after $16.3M settlement
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, has finally lost the war or rather reached a peaceful settlement in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against him by Virginia Guiffre. The settlement entails a wide range of confidential clauses and what's more attractive is the settlement cost, a whopping £12m compensation to Guiffre to settle his lawsuit. The lawsuit was in fact a humiliating one for the Duke as he was reluctant to spit the truth in front of the court and after a grueling 72 hours of negotiations, finally reached a conclusion but with a heavy price for his past deeds.
The shamed Duke, 61, spared himself with the hefty payout just a few days before the Queen's platinum jubilee celebrations. According to the Daily Telegraph reports, Andrew will not be able to repeat his claim that he did not rape Virginia Roberts Giuffre as part of the Jeffrey Epstein sex ring, under the terms of a confidential settlement. The agreement bars both the parties from discussing the case or the financial terms of its settlement for a period of time, according to the paper. The bar is reportedly going to last till Queen's platinum jubilee celebrations and after that either parties could share their views publicly, also document their personal statements digitally.
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The lawsuit has started making news since August 2021 after Guiffre approached higher courts for justice. Earlier, in an interview with the BBC's Emily Maitlis in November 2019, Andrew denied claims that he slept with Giuffre and said he had "no recollection" of ever meeting her. He also said he has no memory of the well-known photograph of him with his arm around Guiffre's waist at Ghislaine Maxwell's house, and has questioned whether it was his own hand in the image.
Guiffre had filed the complaint against the Duke of York over claims he raped and abused her when she was 17. He was allegedly involved with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, whose sentencing is yet to occur and the 38-year-old Guiffre is expected to give a victim impact statement. It has been years of fight and guilt that helped Guiffre to raise her voice against such immoral acts in the society, that too by a person from such a reputed royal family.
According to a joint statement issued by the lawyers of both the parties, Prince Andrew said he will make a "substantial donation" to Ms Giuffre’s victims’ rights charity as part of the deal and mentioned his “regret” over his ties to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. He also pledged to "demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein" by supporting the "fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims" as he hailed his accuser's "bravery". In exchange for his acknowledgment of all the deals put forward by Guiffre, she dropped the cases against him at the civil court of Justice.