Prince Andrew faces 'disaster' if he takes stand in Virginia Roberts sex case after Newsnight interview, expert claims

PRINCE Andrew faces "disaster" if he takes the stand during the bombshell sex case against him, a royal biographer has claimed.

The Duke of York's "car crash" Newsnight interview – in which he bizarrely claimed he doesn't sweat – should warn him off giving evidence, Angela Levin says.

Andrew faces a lawsuit in the US amid allegations he forced Virginia Roberts Giufrre to sleep with him when she was 17.

Ms Robert was a former sex slave of late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The duke vehemently denies the allegations.

Writer Ms Levin, who has penned an authorised biography of Prince Harry, says Andrew had just three options to explore ahead of the civil case.

Speaking on talkRADIO this morning, Ms Levin said: "One – he could ignore it, pretend it didn't happen, he didn't know anything about it.

"We see that hasn't worked because it hasn't gone away.

"Option two was to go to America and answer all the questions and nit-pick apart the accusations, which is quite dangerous.

"Remember how he was on Newsnight and then think of him on the stand.

"I think it would be a disaster for him.

"Three is to try to worm out the fact that his accuser doesn't have a case."

Andrew previously hoped to have the case thrown out on a technicality after his Hollywood lawyer argued the documents hadn't been officially served.

And in his latest bid to end the lawsuit, his legal team successfully argued to receive a copy of a 2009 settlement signed by Ms Roberts.

'IT COULD BE A DISASTER'

Attorney Andrew B. Brettler says the accuser had entered into a "settlement agreement" that would end her current claim against the prince.

But Ms Levin said: "That's a dead end as well.

"It's just not going to go away."

She said the suit is affecting the Royal Family "very badly" – and no matter what the outcome, the damage to Andrew's reputation will be significant.

"Here's the prince and he's just going on and on and pretending in a rather pompous way he's above all this nonsense," she said.

Despite a series of PR catastrophes in recent years, Andrew was reportedly so confident the case would collapse that he was plotting a return to the royal frontline.

He's pretending in a rather pompous way he's above all this nonsense

That hope was in spite of the alleged wishes of older brother Charles.

But he's now understood to be "worried".

One source said: “There has been a dramatic shift in mood and the reality that this could not only go on for many months, if not years, as well as costing potentially millions of pounds is very real.”

Despite that, he plans to fight back – and sources say Mr Brettler plans to "examine and dismantle the claims one by one".

The case is reportedly costing the Queen millions of pounds already.

It's understood Mr Brettler is charging Andrew around US$2,000 (£1476.50) an hour.

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