Is Prince Andrew able to save himself? Are his reputation, good name and integrity about to go under the hammer?
The truth is that no one knows the answer to these questions.
He insists he’s innocent of any fault, and it would be in the Royal Family’s best interests to prove his innocence to the rest of the world. He has not yet done this.
Prince Andrew is the shining star, writes STEPHEN GLOVER
This week’s conviction means that the prince has just about escaped with his combination of stone-walling and evasion. However, it was at great cost to him credibility. His friend Ghislaine Maxill was convicted of child sex traficking. He must take a new approach. His situation has changed dramatically.
Andrew’s name is in more spotlight, partly due to the fact that we now know that his guest at Balmoral Castle, Windsor Castle, Sandringham was both wicked and depraved.
That famous picture of Prince Andrew, smiling, wrapping his arm around Virginia Giuffre’s bare midriff as Ghislaine Maxiwell shines behind him, has a deeper meaning.
Was there anything that happened on that fateful night? What the hell was that 41-year old prince doing with his arm around the 17-yearold girl, who was part of the sex trafficking rings of underage girls fostered by Maxwell for Jeffrey Epstein’s friend?
Maxwell’s Belgravia home was where the famous photo of Virginia Roberts and Prince Andrew, as well as Ghislaine Maxwell, was taken
Prince Andrew photographed during his interview on BBC Newsnight 2019
The spotlight also homes in on Andrew because the allegations of Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims have now been believed and upheld by a jury, though Virginia Giuffre herself was not called as a witness during the trial.
Can the prince seriously believe that his previous policy of bobbing and weaving – he told BBC’s Newsnight in a disastrous interview in 2019 that he couldn’t even remember meeting Giuffre – is remotely sustainable following Maxwell’s conviction?
Look at how he has behaved over the past months with his lawyers. Andrew was accused of trying to ‘dodge, duck, run and hide’ in his mother’s palaces to avoid legal papers being served on him after Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against him. They should have been accepted as men.
His aggressive US attorney, Andrew Brettler, attempted to argue simultaneously that Giuffre’s claims were ‘baseless and potentially unlawful’ whilst also saying that the court papers had not been properly served. Judge Lewis Kaplan reasonably responded: ‘Let’s cut out all the technicalities and get to the substance.’
In October, the prince’s lawyers changed tack by branding Giuffre as a ‘money-hungry sex kitten’ who had ‘initiated this baseless lawsuit against Prince Andrew to achieve another payday’.
They lied to the American Court that Virginia Giuffre had pretended to be an American citizen and was living in Australia. The arguments will be heard by the judge on Tuesday.
Whether in relation to Giuffre’s lawsuit, or to other charges that may lie along the road in the wake of Maxwell’s conviction, Prince Andrew is going to have to stand and defend himself. If he declines to do so, the world will increasingly conclude that he is guilty – with possibly calamitous consequences for the monarchy.
The prince behaves as if all the charges against him are his. He seems to believe that the only thing that matters is whether he wants to interview himself and then shoot himself in his foot or dodge court papers or unleash attack dog lawyers who abuse abusive language.
Prince Andrew strongly refutes Ms Giuffre’s (pictured in court in New York, August 27, 2019,) claims that he had sex with her following the claim she was trafficked to him.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Jeffrey Maxwell associate sits while the guilty verdict of her sex-abuse trial in New York City is read.
It’s not, of course. Andrew’s reputation is on the line, and he has so far managed to guard it in a spectacularly clod-hopping way. But there is something infinitely more important at stake – the position of Her Majesty the Queen as she approaches the 70th anniversary of the start of her reign.
If this entitled, arrogant prince keeps giving the impression that there are only one set of rules that regulate the behavior of people like him and another that applies to everyone, then the monarchy will suffer serious damage.
He must stop running the show in an incompetent or haphazard manner. He must give an honest account about himself and explain the closeness he had with Ghislaine Maxill, a child trafficker, as well as Jeffrey Epstein, a paedophile who committed suicide in jail.
Uninnocent men should not have anything to fear from the law. Although the prince is entitled to a fair hearing and he can refuse very serious charges, it becomes shameful, disgraceful, and ultimately destructive.
He was a fool who kept poor company and is often accused of bad deeds. While few people would give a damn for him, millions love the monarchy. It is not right for Prince Andrew to destroy it.