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Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Attorneys for Britain's Prince Andrew have asked the judge presiding over his sexual abuse lawsuit to dismiss the case because, they argue, the accuser was legally past the age of consent. The accuser, Virginia Roberts Guiffre, says in the suit that Prince Andrew raped and assaulted her after she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein when she was 17.
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Prince Andrew's lawyers say that the suit, filed under the New York Child Victims Act, should be dismissed because Guiffre was over New York's legal age of consent, which is 17.
The New York law aims to protect assault victims under the age of 18.
Andrew's attorneys also argue that Guiffre's memory was highly subjective and could have faded over time.
Documents filed by the royal's lawyers ask the judge to dismiss the case, or order Guiffre to provide more details about when and where the alleged assaults occurred.
The attorneys are scheduled to make their arguments to dismiss the case in court on Jan. 4.
U.S. District Just Lewis Kaplan, however, must first rule on the motion before opening Prince Andrew's civil trial, which is expected to start sometime late next year.
Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth II, has denied wrongdoing and has played down his relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting prosecution on sex trafficking charges.
