Prince Andrew to face interview under oath as part of civil sex case
The deposition will be taken at a neutral location and is expected to last two days
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Your support makes all the difference.The Duke of York is set to give evidence under oath next month as part of the civil sex assault case against him.
Andrew will give what is known as a deposition on 10 March in London in what has been described as a neutral location.
A source close to the royal said that his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, had not yet committed to a date or location for her deposition “despite repeated requests”.
The news of Andrew’s deposition date, first reported by The Daily Telegraph, comes on the eve of the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
On Sunday, the monarch will become the first British sovereign to reach a historic 70 years on the throne.
Andrew’s deposition will be conducted by Ms Giuffre’s lawyers, David Boies and Sigrid McCawley, and is expected to last two days, according to the Telegraph.
Mr Boies has previously said that his client and legal team were expecting to “confront” Andrew about his “denials and attempts to blame Ms Giuffre for her own abuse, at his deposition and at trial”.
The renowned lawyer was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2010, and he has been named Global International Litigator of the Year by Who’s Who Legal seven times, according to his law firm’s website.
Ms Giuffre is suing the duke for damages in her home country of the US, claiming she was trafficked by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein – Andrew’s friend, and a convicted sex offender – to have sex with the royal when she was 17, a minor under US law, at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home in the early 2000s.
The duke is also alleged to have sexually abused Ms Giuffre during a visit to Epstein’s private island, Little St James, and on a separate occasion at the financier’s Manhattan mansion.
Andrew has strenuously denied all of the allegations.
A source close to the duke said: “We agreed to voluntarily produce the duke for a deposition on March 10. Despite repeated requests, Ms Giuffre still hasn’t committed to a date or location for her deposition.”
The Telegraph reported that those due to give depositions after Andrew include the royal’s former assistant, Robert Olney, and Shukri Walker, who claims to have seen Andrew in London’s Tramp nightclub in 2001.
Last month, court documents revealed that US Judge Lewis A Kaplan had written letters to the senior master of the Queen’s Bench Division in the UK to request assistance in acquiring evidence for the civil claim filed by Ms Giuffre.
The judge asked for Mr Olney to be questioned on topics including Andrew’s communications with Maxwell, Epstein and Ms Giuffre, and his travel to Epstein’s homes.
In a separate letter to the High Court, Judge Kaplan also requested testimony from Ms Walker on questions about the presence of the duke and Ms Giuffre at Tramp nightclub in March 2001 and any interactions the pair had.
The civil sex assault trial is scheduled to take place between September and December this year.
The parties will need to confirm by 28 July whether they wish to proceed to trial.