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Speaking to Dan Wootton on GB News, human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell said the settlement which was announced on Tuesday gives the situation a “very nasty whiff”. On Tuesday, Prince Andrew settled a civil sexual assault case brought against him in the US by Virginia Giuffre.
Ms Giuffre had been suing the Duke of York, claiming he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17.
The royal has vehemently denied these claims.
A letter filed to the US district court on Tuesday said the Duke and Ms Giuffre had reached an out-of-court settlement.
It said the Duke, who makes no admission of liability, would pay an undisclosed sum to Ms Giuffre.
In a letter to US judge Lewis A Kaplan, Ms Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies wrote jointly with Prince Andrew’s lawyers to say the pair had reached “a settlement in principle”.
A statement included with the letter read: “The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms Giuffre’s receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).”
It said the Duke would make a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.
Discussing the decision with GB News host Dan Wootton, Mr Tatchell said: “Basically it is a financial settlement.
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“He has paid money to close the case, and that has a very nasty whiff.
“Many people will wonder why didn’t he defend himself because previously Prince Andrew said that he would never settle and that he wanted a jury trial.
“Now he has gone back on that. He has allegedly or speculatively paid probably millions to settle this case.
“So has it been a case result by looking at the evidence or by the decision of a judge or jury, it has been a case result by big money, and that I think taints the whole process.
“And at the end of the day, none of us now will know the whole truth because even if much of the truth could have been established in a court of law by giving evidence from both sides, that will now not happen.”
Prince Andrew, the statement added, had “never intended to malign Ms Giuffre’s character” and he recognised she had “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks”.
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The Duke also pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association” with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”.
He also commended the “bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others”.
Lady Colin Campbell supported the Duke of York’s decision and said: “I know that Prince Andrew is on the grave constraints that have nothing to do, you know, he has to consider his mother jubilee.
“Had he been a little bit more selfish, and quite frankly, had he been me, I would have been recommend that he fights to this, but he has made a sacrifice for the welfare of the monarchy and the good of his mother.”
