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Prince Andrew’s accuser has said that she ‘may have made a mistake’ by claiming that she was forced to have sex with a high-profile lawyer.
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Virginia Roberts said she was ‘very young’ and in a ‘very stressful and traumatic environment’ when she was around Jeffrey Epstein which led her to wrongly identify Alan Dershowitz.
According to Mail Online, she settled a defamation case she brought against Dershowitz in 2019 with no financial payment made to either side on Tuesday, November 11.
The extraordinary development comes months after Roberts settled a civil claim with the Duke of York for a reported $ 12 million.
Roberts claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 at Epstein’s bidding.
Dershowitz was among the other high-profile men that Roberts claimed she was ‘loaned out’ to at Epstein’s command.
She sued the 84-year-old Harvard law professor in a court in New York for defamation in 2019 and he strongly and vehemently denied the allegations.
Dershowitz, who has represented OJ Simpson and was a lawyer for Epstein who negotiated his 2009 sweetheart plea deal, has become a strong critic of the MeToo movement and wrote a book called ‘Guilt by Association’ criticizing it.
In a statement at the conclusion of the case, Roberts, 38, who now lives in Australia and goes by her married name Giuffre, said: ‘I have long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz.
‘However, I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment, and Mr. Dershowitz has from the beginning consistently denied these allegations.
‘I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz. This litigation has been very stressful and burdensome for me and my family, and we believe it is time to bring it to an end and move on with our lives’.
The case had been due to go to trial next year and would have been the first time that Roberts would have faced questioning in a court of law about any of her claims.
Her claims were used in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell for recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein last year, which resulted in a conviction and 20 year sentence.
In a statement, Dershowitz said he was ‘gratified’ that the lawsuit had ended.
He said: ‘As I have said from the beginning, I never had sex with Ms. Giuffre. I have nevertheless come to believe that at the time she accused me she believed what she said.
‘Ms. Giuffre is to be commended for her courage in now stating publicly that she may have been mistaken about me.
‘She has suffered much at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, and I commend her work combatting the evil of sex trafficking’.
Roberts’ lawyer David Boies said in a statement that the conclusion of the case meant all parties can ‘move on’.
He said: ‘I know that Alan Dershowitz has suffered greatly from the allegation of sexual abuse made against him – an allegation that he has consistently, and vehemently, denied.
‘I also know that this litigation has imposed, and continues to impose, a significant burden on Ms. Giuffre’.
A spokesman for Prince Andrew declined to comment.
Roberts sued Dershowitz for defamation for calling her a liar about her allegations.
In her civil complaint she said: ‘During the time period that Roberts was being trafficked by Epstein she was forced to have sex with Alan Dershowitz.
‘Roberts was forced to engage in sexual acts with Dershowitz in, among other locations, Epstein’s (New York) mansion’.
Roberts went on to claim that ‘from the beginning, Dershowitz and Epstein have sought to hide their crimes behind a curtain of lies’.
She claimed: ‘Only a person seeking to conceal improper conduct would have engaged in the pattern of lies which has characterized Dershowitz’s statements since his sex trafficking was revealed’
In a joint statement by all parties, they said: ‘The resolution does not involve the payment of any money by anyone or anything else.
