Buckingham Palace had already denied on Friday allegations made in
Florida court documents by the woman, who said she was forced as a
minor by financier Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with several people,
including Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth.
Another of those named by the woman, well-known American attorney
Alan Dershowitz, said he has assembled a team of "eminent" lawyers
to fight the sexual abuse allegations made against him in last
week's filing in Florida federal court.
The allegations come from a woman who is named in the filing as Jane
Doe #3, but Buckingham Palace referred to her as Virginia Roberts.
Several British newspapers have also named the woman.
Dershowitz represented Epstein against criminal sex abuse charges,
which ended in a plea deal six years ago under which Epstein served
jail time for state charges but avoided federal prosecution. Last
week's filing was made in a long-running civil litigation brought
against the U.S. government over the plea agreement by women who say
they were abused by Epstein.
On Sunday, Buckingham Palace issued its second denial of wrong-doing
by Prince Andrew. "It is emphatically denied that HRH The Duke of
York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia
Roberts. The allegations made are false and without any foundation,"
a palace spokesman said.
Dershowitz told Reuters that his team of attorneys included Thomas
Scott, a former Florida U.S. attorney and former federal judge, and
Kendall Coffey, another former Florida U.S. Attorney, as well as
lawyers in Boston, New York and London whom he declined to name.
He said the allegations against him were false, and that the
attorneys who filed them - Florida attorney Brad Edwards and
University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell - knew they were
false.
Dershowitz, a Harvard University professor emeritus, said he planned
to file complaints with the attorney disciplinary boards of Florida
and Utah seeking to have them disbarred. Knowingly making false
court filings is grounds for disbarment in both states.
Dershowitz also said he would file a motion to join in the Florida
civil action, by making a sworn statement in Florida federal court
denying the charges.
He said the allegations against him were especially unfair because
they were made in a court case where he was not a party, so that he
had no chance to respond directly.
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"It's like Josef K in Kafka," he said. "The difference is that Josef
K lost. In the end I will prevail. They took on the wrong innocent
person."
Edwards and Cassell said in a joint statement that they looked
forward to Dershowitz's filing.
"It is not unethical to provide legal representation to the victim
of international sex trafficking ring and to believe in the
allegations such a victim makes – even when those allegations are
made against powerful people," they said.
Buckingham Palace also denied on Sunday that the Queen had met
Virginia Roberts.
The woman's father, Sky Roberts, was quoted by the Daily Mail as
saying that his daughter had been introduced to the Queen while
visiting London with Epstein.
When asked about this, a palace spokesman said: "there is nothing to
suggest that this claim is true. We have no record of such a
meeting."
On Saturday, some British newspapers published an old photograph of
Prince Andrew holding the waist of the woman, then aged 17. The age
of consent is 16 in Britain, but it is 18 in much of the United
States.
People making a criminal complaint of rape in England have a legal
right to anonymity unless they choose to waive it.
(Additional reporting by David Milliken; Writing by Brendan Pierson
and Frances Kerry; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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