Buckingham Palace denies sex claim against Prince Andrew

Royal officials denied that Britain’s Prince Andrew engaged in any “impropriety with underage minors” after he was named in US court documents related to a lengthy lawsuit against Jewish-American financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In papers filed to a Florida court, an unidentified woman alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein when she was under the age of 18. The filing said the alleged encounters took place around 1999 to 2002. The woman’s claims were added to a drawn-out lawsuit filed by two other women who claim they were sexually abused as minors by Epstein.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement Friday: “This relates to longstanding and ongoing civil proceedings in the United States, to which the Duke of York is not a party. As such we would not comment on the detail.”

Andrew, 54, is known as the Duke of York.

The statement added: “However, for the avoidance of doubt, any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.” The statement was unusual because royal officials typically do not comment on such allegations.

The woman who named Prince Andrew in the lawsuit said Saturday she would not be silenced.

The plaintiff, identified only as “Jane Doe #3” in court papers, told the Guardian newspaper that she refuses to be “unjustly victimized again” after robust denials from Buckingham Palace.

Brooklyn-born Epstein, a known friend of the 54-year-old prince, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 after pleading guilty to a single Florida state charge of soliciting prostitution. He remains a registered sex offender.

No dates for the purported sexual encounters were given, but the woman claimed she was Epstein’s sex slave from 1999 through 2002.

Another man named in the court papers also robustly protested his innocence.

Alan Dershowitz, one of Epstein’s defense lawyers with whom “Jane Doe #3” was allegedly forced to have sex with on several occasions, told AFP the story was “made up.”

He accused “Jane Doe #3” of “filing a false and malicious legal proceeding” in an attempt to extort money from his former client.

In a statement issued to the Guardian through her lawyers, the woman said: “These types of aggressive attacks on me are exactly the reason why sexual abuse victims typically remain silent and the reason why I did for a long time.

“That trend should change. I’m not going to be bullied back into silence.”

Andrew is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and fifth in line to the British throne.

He was Britain’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment for 10 years until 2011. It was not the first time Prince Andrew has faced media scrutiny over his friendship with Epstein. He stepped down from his role as a UK trade ambassador following controversy over his links with the billionaire.

The motion in which he is named is to be included in an ongoing civil case that accuses federal prosecutors of cutting a plea-bargain deal with Epstein without consulting his victims, in violation of the US Crime Victims Rights’ Act.