Dershowitz threatens to sue accuser in sex claim

Harvard professor says he will work to have claimant testify, terms the situation ‘Kafkaesque’

US attorney Alan Dershowitz, January 4, 2015 (screen capture: BBC)
US attorney Alan Dershowitz, January 4, 2015 (screen capture: BBC)

Prominent US attorney Alan Dershowitz threatened legal action Sunday against a woman who accused him and Britain’s Prince Andrew of sex crimes, and said he would work to have her testify in court.

Dershowitz, with whom the accuser, dubbed “Jane Doe #3” was allegedly forced to have sex on several occasions, told AFP the story was “made up.”

In an interview with the BBC, the Harvard Law School professor said he wanted the plaintiff to speak on oath in court.

“I unequivocally and without any reservations totally deny all the allegations about sexual contact,” he said.

“My goal is to bring charges against the client and require her to speak in court. If she believes she has been hurt by me and by Prince Andrew, she should be suing us for damages.

“I welcome any opportunity which would put her under oath and require her to state under oath these false allegations.

“What they’ve done was so underhanded: simply asserting it in a legal proceeding, not asking for any opportunity to prove it, not alleging that they could prove it, not giving me an opportunity to disprove it. That’s Kafkaesque,” continued Dershowitz.

Buckingham Palace issued a new denial Sunday of allegations that the US woman was kept as an underage “sex slave” and forced to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew.

The woman also alleged in a US court filing that she had been kept as a “sex slave” by Wall Street financier Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of the prince.

Both Dershowitz and Andrew, the Duke of York — who is fifth in line to the throne — have vigorously denied the allegations.

The Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror newspapers both published details of interviews given by the woman in recent years, in which she discusses three alleged encounters with Andrew.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Express reported that the prince was due to fly back into Britain after taking a ski trip to Switzerland.

According to the motion filed in a Florida court this week, the woman alleges she was “forced to have sexual relations” with 54-year-old Andrew, meeting him in London, New York and the Caribbean at Epstein’s behest.

Epstein, a known friend of Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, was convicted in 2008 of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and served a prison term.

Dershowitz said Epstein was “very upset at these lies being circulated.”

Speaking of the denial of her claims, “Jane Doe #3” told The Guardian newspaper: “I’m not going to be bullied back into silence.”

But Dershowitz, who said he did not recognize her name or picture, countered: “I would like the opposite: I want her to speak!

“I challenge her to repeat her statement… under oath.”

The woman claimed she was Epstein’s sex slave from 1999 through to 2002.

In 1960, Andrew became the first child born to a reigning British monarch in more than a century. His elder brother, Charles, the heir to the throne, was born before their mother Elizabeth became queen in 1952.

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