Epstein paid $ 500,000 the complainant to drop her allegations of sexual abuse against him and other “potential defendants.”
The US Justice released this Monday a confidential agreement signed in 2009 according to which the late magnate Jeffrey Epstein paid $ 500,000 a Virginia Giuffre to abandon her accusations of alleged sexual abuse when she was a minor, a document that defense attorneys prince Andrew England hopes it will serve to dismiss the case against him.
The extrajudicial pact, which until now remained secret, establishes that any legal action by Giuffre against Epstein and against other “potential defendants” in the alleged plot of sex trafficking of minors for which the billionaire was investigated and is being investigated will be dismissed. a New York courthouse.
That clause, although it does not mention Andrés, could shield the prince, accused by Giuffre in a New York court of having had sexual relations with her when she was still a minor in one of Epstein’s mansions.
That is what the defense of the son of Isabel II of England, which has insisted on the publication of the agreement and defends that it frees the prince “from any potential responsibility”, according to what lawyer Andrew Brettler said last September during a hearing.
Prince Andrew, who has denied even knowing Virginia Giuffre – despite the fact that a photo widely disseminated in the media shows him holding her by the waist – has tried to annul the trial against her on several occasions, recently for defects in form.
An oral hearing is scheduled for Tuesday to hear a defense request for the case to be dismissed.
Giuffre, 38, maintains that was a victim of sex trafficking committed by financier Jeffrey Epstein and his right hand man, Ghislaine Maxwell, and that as a result suffered abuse by Prince Andrew when he was 17 in London, New York and on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
The woman – currently residing in Australia – filed a civil lawsuit against the British prince last August in New York, taking advantage of the Child Victims Law.
The hearing scheduled for Tuesday will be the first since Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking last week in a trial closely related to Giuffre’s, albeit criminally.
The agreement signed by Giuffre and Epstein also establishes that its terms “Shall not constitute admission of responsibility or guilt by any party” and that its terms “will not be used or disclosed in any court or arbitration or other legal procedure except to impose what is stipulated in this agreement,” although the validity that the New York judge grants to that text remains to be seen.
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