30-01-22, 10:30
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re: EPSTEIN: Prince Andrew WILL Testify.10 March in London in Sex Abuse Case
Virginia Giuffres' Dad Slams 'Royal Bluffer' Prince Andrew as 'Game-Playing Coward'
Virginia Giuffre’s dad Sky Roberts said he will give evidence if a trial demanded in legal papers filed by Prince Andrew goes ahead. He added the Queen has 'kind of disowned' her son
Daily Mirror 30 JAN 2022
Sky Roberts slammed Prince Andrew as a victim-blaming coward
The father of Prince Andrew’s sex accuser has slammed the royal as a victim-blaming coward and a bluffer – and says: I’ll see YOU in court.
Virginia Giuffre’s dad Sky Roberts says he will give evidence if a trial demanded in legal papers filed by the Duke of York goes ahead.
Sky tells the Sunday Mirror: “If my daughter asks me to stand up in court, I will do it and tell them the truth.
“She wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t right. I believe in her.”
In an exclusive interview, the 65-year-old father also:
Ridicules the prince’s claim that convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was not a close friend.
Accuses Andrew, 61, of playing a game of bluff, but “doesn’t have a strong hand”.
Doesn’t believe the prince will ever face a prison sentence.
Says the Queen has “kind of disowned” her son – and thinks “that is great”.
The dad spoke days after Andrew’s lawyers filed paperwork calling for the civil case brought by Virginia to be thrown out because of “her own wrongful conduct” – citing a legal term called the “doctrine of unclean hands”.
Sky believes this will pave the way for claims that Virginia, when a teenager, trafficked other girls for Andrew’s paedo pal Jeffrey Epstein.
The papers filed in New York make 41 denials in a fresh bid to have Virginia’s accusations thrown out of a civil court.
Sky says: “It’s the coward’s way out to try to blame the victim.”
'Actress' Virginia Giuffre claims Andrew raped and sexually abused her three times when she was 17
Virginia claims Andrew raped and sexually abused her three times when she was aged 17. The prince strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
In his legal papers he indicated he wants a jury trial if his claim to dismiss the lawsuit fails.
But Sky – whose daughter is now a mum of three aged 38 – insists: “He is playing a game and he is bluffing.
“He doesn’t have a strong hand. Do you think my daughter wants to go through this stuff?
“She has kids. Do you think she wants to go back there after all that happened?
“No. She is doing it because it’s right. It’s ridiculous for him to say that Virginia’s hands are unclean or she has skeletons in her closet, or whatever.”
Virginia pictured as a child with her dad
Sky also addresses the hold he fears American financier Epstein had over Virginia, saying: “She was a 17-year-old girl and Epstein had bargained her out to Andrew and told her, ‘You do this, or else. You have to go with him and sleep with him and do whatever he needs, or else. We can hurt you or your family.’
“I think they put that over her head all the time. He [Andrew] is also trying to say he doesn’t even know who Virginia is.
“Yet there’s the picture with her, him and Ghislaine Maxwell, together. I believe a jury won’t believe him. That’s why Virginia wants a jury trial.”
Virginia claims she was trafficked to Andrew and forced to have sex with him on three occasions.
She says this amounts to rape, sexual assault and battery and is suing for unspecified damages, thought to be in the millions of pounds.
Sky, a retired maintenance manager, goes on: “Financially is the only way she can hurt him. Virginia has tried everything so, monetarily, that’s the only way to go.
“How else are you going to hurt him? You’re going to send him to jail?
“No. He will be protected, he will never see a jail. If he would have just apologised, she wouldn’t have been doing this. Because then he would have admitted it. When it actually comes down to it, he might settle out of court just to stop all this stuff coming out.
But either way, it’s going to hurt him.”
In the court papers, Andrew admitted he first met Epstein “in or around 1999”, but denied that Maxwell was a “close friend”.
He said he lacks sufficient information to deny or confirm they were photographed “at numerous social events together”.
And he further claimed he has insufficient information to know if he sent emails to Maxwell in 2015 saying he had “some specific questions to ask you about Virginia”. Sky also hit back at the suggestion Maxwell was not a close friend, saying: “That’s a joke. She is in the same picture with him and Virginia and they are at her place.”
Sky once worked at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago, where Virginia first met Maxwell, now 60.
The daughter of late newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell was found guilty in New York last month of recruiting underage girls for Epstein – who killed himself in a cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell faces up to 65 years in jail.
Prince Andrew's Response
Welcoming the verdicts, Sky went on: “I was so glad because she is the one who recruited my daughter.
“If it wasn’t for her none of this would have happened to Virginia.”
Andrew’s latest motion was filed after he failed to have the civil case dismissed by a court in New York.
It is now in “the discovery phase” with witnesses being called by both parties to be named by May 13.
And the judge overseeing proceedings has indicated he wants the trial to be held before the end of the year.
That prompted fears it could wreck the 95-year-old Queen’s Jubilee year.
Andrew is stepping back from public life and has been stripped of his military titles.
Sky said: “The Queen has kind of disowned him. I think it’s great.”
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