Prince Andrew judge rules Virginia Roberts can't join lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein

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Allegations a 17-year-old was forced to sleep with Prince Andrew erased
Virginia Roberts had attempted to join lawsuit against the U.S. government
The women were trying to reopen a federal non-prosecution agreement
A judge today struck her and a second woman's claims from court records
He said the details had no bearing on the attempt to reopen prosecution

Published: 11:04 EST, 7 April 2015 | Updated: 00:59 EST, 8 April 2015

Prince Andrew will not face court action in the US over claims he had sex with an under-age girl, after a Florida judge ruled her claims must be struck out.

Virginia Roberts had hoped to join a lawsuit involving Andrew’s friend Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted paedophile and sex offender.

But last night Judge Kenneth Marra ordered her claims that she was a ‘sex slave’ to Epstein and was forced to have sex with the Duke of York three times should be ‘struck from the record’.

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Virginia Roberts photographed with Prince Andrew in early 2001. Her claims she was forced to sleep with him have now been struck from the court record

Prince Andrew pictured leaving an Easter service at Windsor Castle on Sunday. The judge ruled the details of the accusations against him had no bearing on the reopening of the lawsuit against Epstein

Prince Andrew speaks for first time since allegations (related)

The judge refused to make a statement regarding the veracity of Miss Roberts’s allegations, but issued an order that the ‘lurid’ and ‘unnecessary’ claims should not be involved in the Epstein case.

‘At this juncture in the proceedings, these lurid details are unnecessary,’ he wrote. ‘These unnecessary details shall be stricken.’

Prince Andrew is not mentioned by name in the ten-page ruling, made in the Palm Beach County court, Florida.

But Judge Marra refers to the powerful people Miss Roberts was allegedly forced to have sex with by Epstein. Her claims of taking part in an orgy with the Duke and sleeping with him on two other occasions when she was 17 – below the age of consent in Florida – were described as ‘immaterial and impertinent’.

In 17 words, the judge may have drawn a line under a controversy that has dogged Prince Andrew since January. Miss Roberts, referred to as ‘Jane Doe 3’ in court papers, and another woman were hoping to join two other alleged victims of Epstein in suing the U.S. government over a plea deal prosecutors struck with the financier.

Jeffrey Epstein allegedly kept Virginia Roberts as a 'sex slave'

But Judge Marra ruled yesterday that the Jane Doe 3 and 4 applications should be denied and it was therefore ‘unnecessary’ for them to be added as plaintiffs.

When the court claim surfaced earlier this year, Prince Andrew and Buckingham Palace refused to go into any details regarding the accusations. However, in late January he briefly referred to the allegations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying he wanted to ‘reiterate and reaffirm’ palace statements that insisted he never had any sexual contact or relationship with Miss Roberts.

She has repeatedly claimed she had sex three times with Andrew when she was 17 – a claim he emphatically denies – and served papers on him via the British Embassy in Washington DC. But they were returned to sender. Her legal team’s bid to serve papers on the Duke came after courier FedEx returned a similar letter as it was ‘refused’ by the recipient at Buckingham Palace.

The court papers lodged in Florida accused Andrew of abusing Miss Roberts when she was 17.

She claimed that under the orders of paedophile Epstein she was ‘forced’ to have sex with the prince three times in 2001 – in London, New York and on Epstein’s Caribbean island. The 55-year-old royal was so concerned about the allegations that he consulted top criminal QC William Clegg. Andrew’s long friendship with Epstein was said to include lavish parties and exotic holidays, but it raised questions over the prince’s choice of friends.

He was introduced to the billionaire by Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell.

The fifth in line to the throne was forced to effectively cool, but not end, the friendship when sex claims were made against the financier. In June 2008, Epstein began serving 13 months of an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to soliciting a girl, 14, for prostitution. Andrew was summoned by the Queen after pictures emerged of him in New York with Epstein in February 2011, after the financier had been released from prison.

It emerged Epstein had given Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson £15,000 to help reduce her debts.

Last night Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

The Duke was not a party to the court action and was not given the opportunity to rebut the allegations through the court.