Prince Andrew, the queen's second son, recently reached an out-of-court agreement with Giuffre, a victim of a sexual assault case in the United States, to settle her civil sexual assault lawsuit against Andrew. Giuffre claims that Geoffrey Epstein, a pedophile convicted as a young man and who committed suicide in prison, coerced him into having sex with Epstein's friends, including senior royals.
The U.S. state of New York enacted the Child Victims Act in 2019, which temporarily extends the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases and gives victims more time to seek justice. Giuffre filed a lawsuit in court last August with serious sexual abuse allegations against the senior member of the royal family.
Although Andrew neither confirmed nor denied Giuffre's allegations in court filings, he has now agreed that he could pay up to millions of dollars for a civil settlement. Earlier, Andrew's lawyers sought to weaken the command, saying the victim's allegations were financially motivated, writing in a scathing court document: "The victim launched this baseless lawsuit with the aim of making him lose money again."
Questions remain about how Andrew will pay for the fee. There are rumors that the Queen may be involved, but if this news is confirmed, it could be a disservice to the Queen. Previously, the Queen had asked Andrew to no longer fulfill his royal role facing the public.
The agreement was reached at a critical moment when the case entered the stage of cross-examination and disclosure. At this stage, both parties may request the disclosure of documents, while the parties involved will have to sit down and accept the evidence, and more details will come into the public eye. While an embarrassing public trial was unlikely, the settlement did not clear Prince Andrew of his guilt, and his reputation was damaged. It should be noted that this year is the queen's succession to the throne, as the queen's favorite prince, Andrew timely "spend money to eliminate disasters" to avoid falling into lengthy litigation, but also a timely stop loss.