A U.S. judge has rejected Prince Andrew’s plea to stay away from rape | Sexual Harassment

The ruling sets the stage for the Virginia Giuffre lawsuit against the Duke of York to proceed with a trial that could begin later this year.

A U.S. judge has rejected Prince Andrew’s request from the United Kingdom to remove him The case of Virginia Giuffre accuses a New York prince of sexually abusing him at the age of 17 and selling him out late Jeffrey Epstein.

In a ruling announced Wednesday, New York Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in his favor that Britain’s royal appeal against the ban was “completely rejected”.

Kaplan in Manhattan said it was not time to consider the prince’s attempt to question Giuffre’s allegations, that he had beaten and deliberately assaulted him, even though he would be allowed to do so in court.

Lawyers for Andrew and Giuffre and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Andrew has denied Giuffre’s allegations that forced him to sleep over twenty years ago in a London house Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and abused him at two other Epstein sites.

The ruling provides a way for Giuffre’s case against Andrew to proceed in a case that Kaplan said could begin later this year.

Although the prince was not charged with any crime, his relationship with Epstein has tarnished his reputation and deprived him of many royal privileges.

Prince Andrew’s lawyers argued that the case had no details and was rejected by a agreement obtained in 2009 and Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyers.

The settlement came 10 years before Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan detention center awaiting trial on a charge of smuggling.

But Kaplan said the “disruptive” language in the Giuffre and Epstein divisions in 2009 indicated that he may have reached “middle ground” if Andrew or others with similar responsibilities could be protected in future cases.

Such resolution may prevent the complainants from continuing to evade prosecution, even from others.

“We do not know what, if any, went through the minds of the parties,” Kaplan said. “The parties have defined at least two clear language. That is why the alliance is so vague.”