For the third time since the sex scandal involving Prince Andrew and an American woman rocked Buckingham Palace, officials at the Palace vehemently denied that Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, forced the underage woman to have sex.

The accuser, referred to as “Jane Doe Number 3,” filed a claim in a civil lawsuit in Florida last week.  In the lawsuit, she also names Jeffery Epstein, the U.S. billionaire and convicted sex offender, and alleges that she was forced to have sexual relations with several prominent people when she was just 17 years old.  She joins the civil lawsuit with three other women who all claim to be the victims of sexual abuse by Epstein.

The lawsuit against the U.S. government seeks to redress the arrangement that resulted in Epstein being convicted on the charge of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008 in a plea deal. Neither Prince Andrew nor Epstein are parties in the civil case.  However, the woman has maintained that she is filing this suit because she is “not going to be bullied back into silence.”  She stated: “I am looking forward to vindicating my rights as an innocent victim and pursuing all available recourse.”

The Palace issued two separate denials of these allegations on Friday and Sunday of last week.  The latter rebuttal was in response to an interview published in the Mail on Sunday wherein the accuser alleges that she worked for Epstein for three years as a sex slave and had been directed by Epstein to have a sexual relationship with Prince Andrew.  The woman revealed her identity to give that interview.  The Palace then responded again on Monday to an article published in Britain’s tabloid, The Sun, in which the woman’s father claims that his daughter met Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to London.  Buckingham Palace denies that such meeting occurred.  The statements of the Palace are noteworthy because spokespeople for the Palace typically do not comment on reports or accusations made in the media concerning the private lives of the royal family.