Lawyers' second bid to make Prince Andrew testify under oath has failed

A second legal bid to make Prince Andrew testify under oath has failed

29 January 2015

A second request asking Prince Andrew to testify under oath about sex allegations made by an American woman, has failed, the Standard can reveal.

Lawyers for Virginia Roberts, who claims she was “procured” to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 by billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sent a letter addressed to the Prince to the British Embassy in Washington.

The document states: “This is a formal request to interview you under oath... at a time and place of your choosing.”

But the letter has been sent back to Miss Roberts’ lawyers after the Foreign Office said it was not the “appropriate channel” by which to serve the papers.

It is the second time in two weeks that the request has failed.

Earlier this month, the Florida-based lawyers sent the letter directly to Buckingham Palace but they say couriers FedEx returned the letter unopened because it was “refused” by the recipient at Buckingham Palace.

Yesterday, Miss Roberts’ lawyer Jack Scarola told the Standard: “Delivery to the embassy has been confirmed. We have no information as to how it has been processed by the embassy.”

But today the Foreign Office confirmed it was being returned to sender.

A spokesman said: “Documents were incorrectly sent to our embassy in Washington. As they were not served via the appropriate channels, we are returning the documents so they can be sent by the agreed international channels for the transmission of legal papers.”

Miss Roberts alleges Prince Andrew has sex with her on three occasions in 2001 when she was 17 – in London, New York and at an orgy with other girls in the Caribbean.

Last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he broke his silence on the controversy, saying he wanted to “reiterate and reaffirm” Buckingham Palace statements dismissing the accusations.

Miss Roberts’ legal team may now have to file a request to the British courts under an international treaty to try to compel him to answer questions under oath.

Under a 1970 Hague convention, to which the US and the UK are both signatories, the lawyers would ask the British courts to question him, through a “letter of request”.

London-based lawyer Peter Binning said the letter of request “would need to be executed by an English court”.

He added the letter of request would be made by the “central authority of the requested state”, in this case most likely the US State Department through a US court.

“Essentially it is a court to court procedure,” he said.

It is most likely her legal team would have to file these requests to the US court considering their case. The request may then be passed by the judge to the relevant foreign legal authorities.

However, according to guidance published by the US department of justice, American attorneys may actually make these requests directly.

Lawyers' second bid to make Prince Andrew testify under oath has failed

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