According to The Mirror in the UK, Prince Andrew’s lawyers are “locked in emergency talks” after the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, and now awaiting the ruling on what she will face.
They even considered calling on one of her victims to help him in his US civil case which includes allegations of sex abuse and first degree rape.
Maxwell now faces up to 65 years in prison, and is the second pedophile that the royal is now known to have befriended.
According to the charges, Maxwell was found guilty to have procured, groomed, and trafficked girls for sex for Epstein abuse.
The jurors’ decision has sparked fear in the Duke of York’s legal team given the burden of proof in a criminal case is far higher than that needed in a civil case, like the one Andrew is facing.
Legal experts in the States point to how OJ Simpson was cleared criminally of Nicole Brown’s death but was found liable in a private case brought by her family.
Crimes in America must generally be proved “beyond a reasonable doubt”, whereas civil cases are proved by lower standards of proof such as “the preponderance of the evidence”.
Despite their concerns, the royal’s lawyers maintain Maxwell’s New York trial was “disastrous” for his accuser Virginia Giuffre, who the prosecution refused to call despite being Jeffrey Epstein’s long time teen ‘sex slave’.
More telling, his legal team believe, is testimony provided during the disgraced socialite’s criminal trial they think has left the lawsuit “seriously, if not fatally, weakened”.
During the Brit’s case, one of her four victims testified to how she was introduced to Andrew’s billionaire sex offender friend, Epstein.
The woman, known in court as ‘Carolyn’, revealed that it was not the Brit who recruited her but Giuffre.
Already, in a controversial effort to prove the royal’s innocence, the Duke’s attorneys have portrayed his rape accuser as an alleged criminal who worked to procure underage “slutty girls” for Epstein.
Now, following the conviction of Maxwell, they are mulling bringing ‘Carolyn’ back to court along with other victims of the late Wall Street financier to show Giuffre was involved in bringing him girls to abuse.
“Andrew’s US team immediately seized upon Carolyn’s testimony,” said a legal source.
“They believe she holds a smoking gun to any possible role Virginia played in Epstein’s pyramid scheme of abuse.
“Andrew’s lawyers have convinced him that if he is to stand any chance of preventing her case from going to court, they need to fight with fire and that nothing should be off-limits.
“They believe Carolyn’s evidence seriously, if not fatality, weakened the case her faces.”
Carolyn, who used her first name, was the third accuser to testify in Maxwell’s New York trial.
She told how the Brit organised sexualised messages with Epstein, starting when she was 14.
But as she took the stand, Carolyn said it was Giuffre who introduced her to Epstein and Maxwell at his Palm Beach mansion in the early 2000s. Her then-boyfriend knew Giuffre, which was how they met.
You can read more from our friends at The Mirror.
Throw him in jail for decades