Prince Andrew’s ‘terrible mistake’ – and why one person blames the late Queen | Royal | News | Express.co.uk
Queen Elizabeth’s former spokesman has hit out at Jeffrey Epstein’s one-time lawyer for dragging the late monarch into a row over Prince Andrew’s out-of-court payment to sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre.
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Andrew leaves Royal lodge (Image: Kelvin Bruce)
Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter slammed Alan Dershowitz’s comments as “disrespectful” as he said the American “should put up and shut up”.
Mr Dershowitz, who was the defence lawyer and long-time associate of convicted paedophile Epstein, sparked fury yesterday when he said the decision by Andrew, 63, to settle his lawsuit with Ms Giuffre in 2022 was a “terrible mistake”.
The 85-year-old said the Duke of York “would have won” if he had gone to court – and he believed the royal was “pressured” by his mother to settle.
Mr Arbiter, 83, hit back, saying: “If you went out and spoke to the public and said, ‘Look, this guy from the States has dragged the Queen into this 15, 16 months after she has died, is it the right thing to do?
“The answer is obviously not. It is disrespectful.”
Ms Giuffre had sued Prince Andrew in 2021, claiming she was sexually assaulted by him on three occasions when she was 17.
Andrew has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The Duke, seen yesterday driving his Range Rover from his Windsor home, Royal Lodge, is understood to have wanted to fight the civil case filed in New York.
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However, he was under intense pressure to strike a deal and not overshadow the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Months after Ms Giuffre sued him, Andrew paid a reported £12million to settle the case, with no admission of liability.
But Mr Dershowitz said: “I think he made a terrible mistake. I suspect he was pressured by his mother to make that mistake.
“If he had fought that case, I believe he would have won.
“I believe the case would have been dismissed on a variety of grounds, but he didn’t want to sit through a deposition, or people around him didn’t want to sit through a deposition, so he settled the case.”
Mr Dershowitz was himself named 137 times in court documents recently unsealed by a New York judge.
They formed part of a 2015 lawsuit filed by Epstein trafficking victim Mrs Giuffre, now 40, against his girlfriend, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell, 62, is currently in jail in the US for procuring girls for the billionaire financier to abuse.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His death was ruled a suicide.
In May 2020, Mrs Giuffre also accused Mr Dershowitz of sex abuse.
She claimed she had provided the lawyer with sexual favours at least six times. Mrs Giuffre also said she was just 16 on the first occasion.
Mr Dershowitz strongly denied her accusations and Mrs Giuffre sued him for defamation.
But in 2022, she dropped her sexual abuse claim against Mr Dershowitz, admitting she “may have made a mistake” in accusing him of molesting her.
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