All of the military titles and royal affiliations bestowed on the Duke of York Prince Andrew have been returned to the Queen, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
An official statement from the Royal Family reads: "With The Queen's approval and agreement, The Duke of York's military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to The Queen.
“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.”
This news comes after a civil case against Andrew brought by Virginia Guiffre was given the go-ahead.
Guiffre, who accuses the prince of sexual assault, said that she wants to be ‘vindicated’ and is not motivated by reaching a ‘purely financial settlement’.
It had been suggested that Andrew could seek to settle the lawsuit against him, but Guiffre’s lawyer David Boies suggested that money might not be the deciding factor in whether a settlement is accepted.
A judge in the USA has already rejected a motion by the prince to have the civil case dismissed, meaning that a trial could take place in the autumn of 2022.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight, Boies said: “I think it’s very important to Virginia Giuffre that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates the other victims.
“I don’t think that she has a firm view at this point, nor could she, as to exactly what the resolution should be.
“But I think what’s going to be important is that this resolution vindicates her and vindicates the claim she’s made.”
Boies also said that he and his team had reached out to the Duke of York’s lawyers on the topic of mediation, but ‘there was no interest at that time’.
He added: “Whether that has changed or not, I think we’ll have to wait and see.”
Andrew had argued that a previous settlement that Guiffre had signed with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2009 in which she agreed not to sue other potential defendants gave cause for the case to be thrown out.
However, Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed the motion, claiming that the settlement was ambiguous.
This means that the case has now moved to the ‘discovery’ phase, which could see all the key parties to the case give depositions on the alleged events.
Boies went on to say that Andrew ‘will have to try and back up’ statements that he made in a 2019 Newsnight interview.
He said that Andrew’s approach to date had been ‘to deny, deny, deny, to blame Virginia, to criticise her, to attack her character, her moral credibility’.
He said: “We will see how all that plays out when he’s under oath”.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Royal Family, UK News, World News
Tom Wood