Andrew accuser in civil sex assault case asks for proof he didn't sweat and went to Pizza Express
Prince Andrew has been asked to provide documents in support of his alibi he did not have sex with Virginia Giuffre - including proof he did not sweat while dancing with her and of his alleged visit to Pizza Express in Woking.
His accuser Ms Giuffre, 38, alleges she, as a teenager, danced with a heavily sweating Andrew at London’s Tramp nightclub before they had sex in 2001.
Ms Giuffre is suing the Duke of York for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager and claims she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with him.
Andrew has denied all the allegations.
The Duke of York told his BBC newsnight interview he was at the Pizza Express branch on the day of the claimed sexual encounter and that he could not sweat at the time due to a medical condition.
Ms Giuffre's lawyers have requested travel documents detailing Andrew’s movements on Epstein’s planes and to his various homes, the Duke’s visit to Pizza Express in Woking and London’s Tramp nightclub.
Andrew’s legal team have rejected the requests for the documents citing various reasons, including rights of privacy under the US constitution and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
His lawyers also said some of the documents requested are already publicly available or the requests are “unduly burdensome, oppressive… duplicative and over broad”.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was convicted in the US on Wednesday of recruiting vulnerable teenagers for her former boyfriend Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004.
She faces the rest of her life in jail, and her friendship with Andrew has brought attention once again to Ms Giuffre’s civil claim against the duke.
Prince Andrew has denied he slept with Ms Giuffre on three separate occasions when questioned by Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in the now infamous November 2019 interview.
He said on the day of one alleged encounter, he had taken his daughter Princess Beatrice to Pizza Express in Woking for a party and they spent the rest of the day together.
Prince Andrew said claims that he sweated heavily as he danced at Tramp nightclub, on the same day, were factually wrong and never happened. He said he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.
Ms Giuffre has alleged she had sex with Andrew in London and New York when she was 17, a minor under US law, and again aged 18 on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein where an orgy took place.
In response to the decision not to provide information, Ms Giuffre’s legal team said in court documents: “If Prince Andrew truly has no documents concerning his communications with Maxwell or Epstein, his travel to Florida, New York, or various locations in London, his alleged medical inability to sweat, or anything that would support the alibis he gave during his BBC interview, then continuing with discovery will not be burdensome to him at all.”