The legal wrangling in the civil case against the Duke of York took another step yesterday, with his lawyers filing a response to his accuser’s claims. Perth-based Virginia Giuffre, who met Andrew through convicted child abusers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell when she was 17yo, says he sexually assaulted her in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands. And in the document made public yesterday, Andrew denied the specifics of the allegations. One aspect that garnered some attention yesterday was his position that he and Maxwell were not close friends. But in his disastrous BBC interview from 2019, Andrew said his relationship with Epstein was a product of his long-standing friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell. And last week, a former Buckingham Palace Royal Protection Officer said the pair were very close. Both Giuffre and the royal have requested the case go before a jury. That will likely happen in New York in the second half of the year unless settled beforehand.