Deadline Looms: Prince Andrew Has to Respond to Sex Assault Lawsuit Filed by Virginia Giuffre Today

Last month, the Duke of York was served with court papers by Virginia Giuffre who claims he sexually abused her in 2001 when she was 17.

Prince Andrew has just a few hours left to respond to a lawsuit which has been filed against him in New York by Virginia Giuffre.

If he does not respond, he will face a default judgment. The next hearing is scheduled to take place at a Manhattan court on 3 November.

The Duke of York was served legal papers on 21 September but has not provided a response yet.

According to the prince's lawyer, Andrew Brettler - as quoted by the Daily Mail - he will file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Virginia Giuffre, who is 37, claims that she was forced by the late financier and paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, and his sometime girlfriend and British socialite, Ghislaine Maxwell, to have sex with Prince Andrew in 2001 when she was 17. She also insists that the Duke knew that she was a minor under US law and that she was a victim of Epstein's sex-trafficking scheme.

The prince rejected all the allegations. In an interview on BBC flagship programme, Newsnight, in November 2019, he told the interviewer Emily Maitlis: "I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened... I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever."

Maxwell is at present in a New York jail awaiting trial on sex abuse and grooming charges. She pleaded not guilty. Jeffrey Epstein was a US financier and convicted sex offender who was arrested in July 2019 on sex-trafficking charges of minors and died in his cell a month later apparently by committing suicide.