Prince Andrew is in the hot seat now that Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of grooming teenagers for sexual abuse and sex trafficking by the late disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell’s guilty verdict comes this week as the royal and his legal team prepare to go to the same New York federal court over a case brought forth by one of Epstein’s many victims.
While it was Maxwell and Maxwell alone who was on trial this week, experts say that it has implications for Prince Andrew, because it means one of his former closest friends has not been convicted as a sexual abuser. In 2019, the royal said in a BBC interview that he had a long-standing friendship with Maxwell, which had resulted in a relationship with Epstein. The Maxwell trial has shown that she was a central cog in the sexual abuse ring run by Epstein.
Legal experts say that if Maxwell was acquitted, there was a higher chance of a possibility that the case against Prince Andrew would be undermined and potentially dismissed.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre brought claims against Prince Andrew in civil suit that he raped and sexually assaulted her after she was sex trafficked to him by Epstein. She said that Andrew assaulted her at the age of 17. The suit claims she was made to have sex with the royal at the home of Maxwell in London in 2001, and was trafficked to the UK by Epstein. She also says she was forced to have sex with him in New York at Epstein’s mansions, as well as in his home on one of his private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Following Maxwell’s conviction on Wednesday, Giuffre said that she hoped this marked the beginning, not the end, of justice being served. She said that Maxwell did not act alone, and that the others who were involved in this horrific crime need to be held accountable.
Be the first to comment