A settlement agreement between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, an alleged trafficking victim who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, is set to be made public.

       Judges in the US ordered its release on Wednesday, finding no reason for it to remain secret.

       The agreement bears directly on Ms Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the Duke of York, in which she accuses him of sexual abuse on multiple occasions in London, Manhattan, and the US Virgin Islands in 2001.

       Andrew - who has not been charged with any crime - has categorically denied the allegations. He will seek to dismiss the civil lawsuit at a hearing on 4 January 2022.

       Two US district judges in Manhattan ordered for the settlement agreement between Ms Giuffre and Epstein - who committed suicide in August 2019 - to be released ahead of the hearing.

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       District Judges Lewis Kaplan - who is overseeing Ms Giuffre’s lawsuit against Andrew - and Lorretta Preska - who has oversight of Ms Guiffre’s lawsuit against Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz - said the agreement should be made public on or around 3 January.

       Earlier this week, the prince’s lawyer called for a halt in the civil sexual assault proceedings against the royal as he claimed Ms Giuffre is not a US resident.

       Ms Giuffre’s lawyer said it was “another in a series of tired attempts” by the royal to “duck and dodge the legal merits of the serious case”.

       Earlier in December, the Duke of York’s lawyer argued for the civil claim to be thrown out by claiming Ms Giuffre - who is seeking unspecified damages - had a “tortured interpretation” of the law.

       Ms Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked by convicted sex offender Epstein, is seeking unspecified damages in the civil sexual assault lawsuit against Andrew.

       Her lawsuit claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was under the age of 18 and legally a minor under US law at the London home of Maxwell, and also accuses the prince of abusing her at two of Epstein’s homes - all of which Andrew has denied.

       Maxwell was found guilty of five charges in a sex trafficking trial at a US court on Wednesday.