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Prince Andrew’s lawyers have asked his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre to give them the original photo that shows the pair posing together at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home, according to a report.
One of Andrew’s US-based lawyers, Andrew Brettler, has arranged for a photographic expert to examine the image in a bid to cast doubt about its authenticity in his sex abuse lawsuit, sources told the UK’s i newspaper.
Giuffre, now 38, is suing the Duke of York in New York for allegedly sexually abusing her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell.
The alleged victim has said the infamous photo was taken upstairs in Maxwell’s London mansion in 2001 after she had been at a nightclub with Andrew, Epstein and Maxwell.
The Queen’s son has long claimed that the photo of him with his arm around Giuffre’s waist is fake.
“I have no recollection of that photograph ever having been taken,” Andrew said in a bombshell BBC interview in 2019.
“It’s a photograph of a photograph of a photograph,” he added. “Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored.”
Andrew also claimed during that interview the photo couldn’t be real because “as a member of the royal family,” he doesn’t hug people.
Giuffre has previously said she handed the controversial photo over to the FBI back in 2011.
The request for the photo comes as Andrew is scheduled to give evidence in London next month as part of his defense in the ongoing lawsuit.
Giuffre filed the lawsuit against Andrew in August last year, accusing the embattled royal of abusing her at least three times — in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands — between 2000 and 2002.
Andrew has denied the allegations.
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