Prince Andrew is questioning the credibility of his rape accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, because she has the tendency to change her sexual abuse story.

The Duke of York is fighting to clear his name from allegations that he raped and sexually abused the alleged victim when she was only a minor. She claimed she was lent to the royal to "gratify his own sexual desires" while working as a "sex slave" for the deceased pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

But Prince Andrew is adamant that he does not know his accuser and has never met her. He said the viral photo of him with his arm around the then 17-year-old Giuffree, said to have been taken in Ghislaine Maxwell's home, could have been manipulated.

Now he is said to be questioning her credibility in telling the truth because of her vague recollections of her abuse. Andrew Brettler, the lead lawyer for the Duke of York, noted that she had given different versions of what actually happened to her. In his request to a New York judge to have her case dismissed, he said her "complaint is ambiguous at best and unintelligible at worst."

"Giuffre's refusal to include anything but the most conclusory allegations is puzzling given her pattern of disclosing to the media the purported details of the same allegations. Perhaps it is Giuffre's tendency to change her story that prompted her to keep the allegations of the Complaint vague, so as not to commit to any specific account," Brettler said.

However, Giuffre stands by her accusations that Prince Andrew raped and sexually abused her when she was only 17. She said he did so on three occasions and that he was "an abuser, he was a participant."

As such, a pre-trial hearing will commence in New York in January 2022, which has the royal so "totally consumed" that he has reportedly told his U.S. legal team to cancel their Christmas plans. Prince Andrew wants to leave "no stone unturned" in his legal fight against Giuffre. He is adamant that he is not guilty and believes that his rape accuser is only in it for the money.

Prince Andrew's lawyers deny lack of cooperation
US investigators have alleged that Britain's Prince Andrew has refused to help in the Epstein investigation. Photo: AFP / JOHN THYS