Britain's Prince Andrew has been stripped of his military affiliations and royal patronages on Thursday amid a New York lawsuit in which he is accused of sexually abusing a 17 year old girl who at the time was being used by the infamous Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew, who was a close friend of Epstein, was stripped of his titles just hours after a letter from more than 150 veterans of the UK's armed forces called on the Queen to strip her son of all his titles and ranks in the armed forces. 

A statement from Buckingham Palace regarding The Duke of York: pic.twitter.com/OCeSqzCP38

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 13, 2022

The plaintiff in Andrew's case, Virginia Giuffre, claims in her Manhattan lawsuit that she engaged in intercourse with Andrew several times when aged 17 under the orders of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was recently convicted at a criminal trial for procuring underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse them.

Many women said Epstein sexually abused them while they were underage. However, US federal authorities cut a deal with him, and allowed him to escape criminal sex charges in exchange for pleading guilty in Florida to soliciting an underage prostitude. Epstein only served 13 months in jail, with most of the sentence spent during the daytime on work release.

Prince Andrew Sued Over Claims of Abuse by Epstein Victim

An alleged victim of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has filed a lawsuit on January 10 against UK’s Prince Andrew in federal court in New York. The victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, claimed to have been abused when she was underage by the British royal in a New York mansion in 2001, something he vehemently denied on previous occasions.

This time around though, the duke of York avoided denying the allegation after British newspaper The Daily Mail revealed a fax containing information about his whereabouts on the 11th of April, 2001: “Private address in New York,” later on being confirmed to be Epstein’s home in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

This revelation gave a strong push for Giuffre’s case, who also claims to have been abused by the Prince on multiple occasions when she was 17, including in Epstein's partner Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home.