Epstein victim Giuffre wins settlement against Prince Andrew

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After a settlement in court was reached between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre, US attorneys handling Giuffre's case applauded the settlement as victorious, claiming that Andrew's "arrogance" was what stood in the way of reaching the settlement earlier.

Last year, Giuffre filed a lawsuit against the British royal figure, accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was 17 through a trafficking scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein. Prince Andrew, however, repeatedly denied any involvement in the accusation. 

Recently, he came to terms with the abuse and agreed to testify. 

However, in the settlement, the prince said that he regretted his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who supposedly "killed himself" in prison, in 2019. 

One of the lawyers who handled Sarah Ransome's case, Robert Lewis, told the Guardian that "It's another banner day for the survivors." Ransome, who was abused at the age of 22, had also successfully settled a lawsuit with Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2018. 

The victims were heard and were no longer silenced, especially after Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking. Ghislaine groomed teenage girls for sexual encounters with Epstein. 

“They understand the pain and suffering that other survivors have gone through and they’re happy to see other survivors get some vindication, whether it’s the money paid or even more importantly just an acknowledgment that their claims are legitimate, that they’ve been wronged and that the truth is out.”

Lisa Bloom, another attorney for Epstein's victims, said that Giuffre did what no one else could, which was getting Andrew to "stop his nonsense and side with sexual abuse victims."

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“My clients and I see this as a monumental victory for Virginia and are just in awe of her courage,” Bloom told the Guardian. “She stood up … she did it not only for herself but for other victims. It’s really an inspiration.”

The money obtained by the settlement, which come in millions of dollars, were allocated to charity and to support victims of sexual abuse and violence who don't necessarily have a "celebrity name attached to their cases." 

Delay attributed to the Prince's arrogance 

"Arrogance" is the reason behind all the delays in reaching court settlements, with Lewis explaining that that is "absolutely the case" when asked whether there was such an element in the court dealings.

“It’s true for Epstein, it’s true for Maxwell, it’s true for the Catholic church, it’s true for the prince … they think the law on some level applies only to everybody else," said Lewis. “The settlement does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that he and his advisers and lawyers didn’t see this earlier and come to terms with it much earlier.”

The court document released on Tuesday revealed that Andrew accepted the fact that Giuffre suffered as a victim of abuse, but that he kept avoiding the matter as a whole. 

“What I observed, and what the world observed, was that for the last however many years he’s been dodging the whole matter. He sat for that terrible [Newsnight] interview in 2019, that didn’t come off well at all. Then they fought jurisdiction in New York and lost, and moved to dismiss, and lost.

Bloom hailed Giuffre's courage: “Folks need to understand how extraordinarily difficult and painful it is to litigate a sexual abuse case, and Virginia has shown more courage in one day than most of us show in an entire lifetime, by not only going after Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, but now Prince Andrew, and standing up to him,” Bloom told Talk Radio.