World enews: Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre among dozen planned depositions in sexual abuse suit, legal teams tell judge

Attorneys for both Prince Andrew and his accuser Virginia Giuffre have told a federal judge that they plan up to 12 depositions including both parties in the case.

During a brief teleconference, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan asked the legal teams about how many depositions they anticipated, with David Boies, representing Ms Giuffre responding that it would be between eight and 12.

“Certainly, obviously, the parties,” he added referring to the prince and his accuser.

Representing Prince Andrew, Andrew Brettler said he believed they would need the same “ballpark number”.

Mr Boies added that there are also a number of potential witnesses and that identifying them all could take as long as two months, Law & Crime reports.

He also asked the judge for help in securing testimony from “two people in the United Kingdom where there might be the [need] for a letters rogatory”.

Letters rogatory are a mechanism for securing testimony from someone in a different country to that in which legal proceedings are taking place.

Ms Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in August in a federal lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing her in three locations when she was 17 years old.

She alleged that two of the properties, a mansion in New York, and a private Caribbean island, belonged to the late Jeffrey Epstein. The third location is said to be the London home of disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

The suit was filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, which lifts the statute of limitations in cases involving alleged sexual offenses against minors.

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