The trial involving Queen Elizabeth II’s second son will likely begin in the autumn after his bid to have the lawsuit thrown out was rejected by Judge Lewis A Kaplan. He ruled an argument put forward by the Duke of York's legal team that a 2009 agreement his accuser Virginia Giuffre made with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein did not prevent her from taking further legal action against him.

       Ms Giuffre, 39, is suing the 61-year-old for an undisclosed sum through a New York court over claims he sexually abused her.

       He has always strenuously denied the claims and said he has "no recollection" of ever meeting her.

       The lawsuit claims she had sex with Andrew on three occasions in 2001 when she was a teenager who had been trafficked by paedophile billionaire Epstein.

       The prince’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, has called the lawsuit “baseless.”

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       The civil trial is expected to be held between September and December.

       Judge Kaplan's latest ruling came after he previously rejected a request to dismiss the case after the duke's lawyers argued Ms Giuffre lived in Australia and not the US, where the case is being heard.

       Mr Brettler, representing the prince, argued that it was "unquestionable" that the royal could have been sued in the 2009 case, and would therefore be considered a "potential defendant".

       He also argued that her lawsuit "should absolutely be dismissed", arguing it was "unfair" and "unjust".

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       The setback comes just hours after it was claimed that Andrew was "aware that she (Ms Giuffre) was being trafficked" when they had sex.

       In a court transcript, Mr Brettler told the judge: "She contends that Prince Andrew was aware that she was being trafficked."

       He added: "She claims that she was trafficked to a bunch of different categories of individuals, including royalty, academia, businessmen.

       "Those individuals would be part of the same enterprise.

       "It wasn’t as if she is alleging that this was some secret trafficking arrangement."

       This afternoon's ruling is the latest blow to hit Andrew's already battered reputation.

       In December, Andrew's former friend Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting underage girls to be sexually abused by her ex-boyfriend Epstein.

       The financier killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

       .

       Andrew stepped back from public life following a disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis.

       And it has been claimed that he could lose his Duke of York title if the scandal continues to snowball.