Twenty years in prison: this is the sentence imposed on Ghislaine Maxwell, former partner of the financier Jeffrey Epstein and with him involved in a story of sexual trafficking and abuse. The New York court ruled on Tuesday 28 June, putting an end to one of the most talked about trials in recent years, not only because of the notoriety of the protagonists, but also because the scandal has also affected the British royal family.
It all started in 2019, when during a hearing in the trial just ended, Virginia Giuffreone of Epstein’s victims, had brought into question the fourth child of Elizabeth II, accusing him, in fact, of abusing her when she was only 17. Maxwell would have put her in touch with the prince. Andrea had rejected the accusations in the course of a public interview, aired on the BBC, providing an alibi: on the evening of the alleged violence she was at a children’s party with her daughters. An unconvincing version, so much so that her involvement, although always unclear, forced him to withdraw from public life and led him to cut ties with his brothers Carlo and Edoardo and with his sister Anna.
At his side, there are only his daughters and the queen, who has always supported him, but who in the end has little power on the decision, necessary for the good name of The Firm, to exclude him from official commitments. Andrea was deprived of his military awards and the title of “Royal Highness”, and today he is a private citizen: he did not even participate in the celebrations for his mother’s Platinum Jubilee, thanks to a providential (and suspected) contagion from Covid-19 .
Unlike Maxwell, however, the prince was saved from trial thanks to an agreement with his main accuser, reached last February. An economic agreement, which forced him to pay a considerable amount into the account of Giuffre, which in the past had already resorted to a similar solution with Epstein himself. Ghislaine Maxwell, on the other hand, was found guilty of six sexual offenses, including child trafficking and abuse. She was the one who lured the girls to “offer” to Epstein and his friends, a real right-hand man for the tycoon, who committed suicide in 2019. The last move of the woman was to want to take the floor to apologize to his victims. Too late. He is sixty and will spend the next twenty in a cell. A decidedly unedifying prospect.
- Prince Andrew has reached an agreement with Virginia Giuffre
- Andrew of York case: the queen deprives him of the title of Royal Highness
- All about the story of Ghislaine Maxwell, guilty
Source: Vanity Fair
