Attacking the woman who accuses you? It's no sweat for Prince Andrew | Marina Hyde

The prince has secured the services of a hardball US lawyer to deal with Virginia Giuffre's claims of sexual assault

Before we get into it all, let me begin by saying nothing could ever make me question the immense dignity, sanctity and class of the US legal process. It's really just the latest jewel in the royal family's many, many crowns that the 95-year-old Queen's son is now being represented by the guy also defending Armie Hammer over his whole cannibal-fetish-rape situation. Hammer denies all, but you probably know that.

And you certainly know most of the Andrew facts. He is accused in a US civil court by former Jeffrey Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges that the prince sexually assaulted her at Epstein's mansion in Manhattan and at other locations in 2001 when she was 17.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist