‘The firm’ awaits grim fallout from Andrew’s disgrace
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, KG, GCVO, CD, ADC, turns 62 next month. It is long past the age when a man should cease being a cause of concern and embarrassment to his parents. Yet Andrew, said to be the Elizabeth II’s favourite child, has exposed his mother to the greatest threat to the royal family’s reputation in living memory.
As he await ed the decision this week of a New York judge, Lewis Kaplan, in the sex assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre, the prince was in the deeply unedifying position of trying to evade court with a secret silencing deal struck by his late friend and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein
The agreement, signed in 2009, stated that in exchange for being paid $500,000, Giuffre, then using her maiden name of Roberts, would “release … and forever discharge … second parties and any other person or entity who could have been included as
