Lawyers for Prince Andrew have claimed the disgraced Duke of York’s alleged rape victim, Virginia Giuffre, searched for ‘slutty girls’ to bring to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In a 36-page “Memorandum Of Law In Support of Defendant’s Motion To Dismiss”, Andrew’s Los Angeles-based attorneys, Andrew Brettler and Melissa Lerner accused Giuffre of ‘willingly’ helping to recruit victims of Epstein’s sex ring.
The document, filed on Friday night at the US District Court in Manhattan, requested a New York judge dismiss the case, pointing to sensationalism that has ‘prevailed over the truth’.
The document also makes bold statements in an attempt to undermine Giuffre’s credibility as a plaintiff, according to Forbes.
Under a section entitled ‘Giuffre’s role in Epstein’s criminal enterprise’, Andrew’s lawyers quoted the sister of one of the claimant’s exes, who previously said: ‘[Virginia] would say, “Do you know any girls who are kind of slutty?”.’
“It is a striking feature of this case that while lurid allegations are made against Prince Andrew by Giuffre, the only party to this claim whose conduct has involved the wilful recruitment and trafficking of young girls for sexual abuse is Giuffre herself, including while she was an adult,” the document claims.
“Giuffre’s pattern of filing a series of lawsuits against numerous high-profile individuals should no longer be tolerated, as it continues to irreparably harm many innocent people and diverts already limited judicial resources from the adjudication of meritorious claims asserted against those who have actually perpetrated sexual offences against minors.”
It is believed the Duke was citing his 2009 release agreement with Virginia, which he hopes will protect him from a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing a woman when she was underage, twenty years ago.
The document also cited a 2015 New York Daily News article which quotes a close acquaintance as a ‘money-hungry sex kitten’.
Sigrid McCawley, Giuffre’s lawyer, believes their case against Andrew was “solid”, and released a statement after the document was filed.
“If Virginia Giuffre had stood silent in the face of outrageous statements like those Prince Andrew routinely churns out — his motion to dismiss the litigation being no exception — the decades-long sex-trafficking ring his friend Jeffrey Epstein operated and he participated in would have never been exposed,” she said.
“On the subject of money, let’s be clear: the only party to this litigation using money to his benefit is Prince Andrew.”
“I don’t know what made him think he could dodge this. It has an air of entitlement,” she told newspapers last week. “I don’t know who would have advised him to do that, it was a very wrong move on his part to expose himself in that way. But frankly it was very helpful for us.”
Giuffre has said publicly that in 2001, she was trafficked to have sex with the Duke of York on three occasions when she was seventeen – a minor under US law.
She says these incidents happened in New York, London, and on Little St James – Epstein’s private Caribbean island, which he purchased in 1998. Andrew has consistently denied these accusations.
In an ongoing civil lawsuit, Giuffre has sued Andrew for sexual assault and rape in the first degree.
The Duke continues to evade criminal charges.
Joan Smith, the forrmer co-chairwoman of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women group, wrote to MailOnline, saying, ‘The Duke of York seems to be living in the 1950s when abused women were often described as gold diggers. Accusing a known victim of sexual exploitation of being motivated by money is about as low as you can get.”
“It is victim shaming and further evidence of his appalling judgment. Andrew is just dragging his reputation further into the gutter.”
A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in New York.