AceShowbiz - Prince Andrew has been encouraged to challenge his settlement with Virginia Giuffre by a lawyer who was also accused of sexual abuse by the woman. The Duke of York settled the case by paying an undisclosed sum to his accuser - who claimed she had been forced into having sex with the royal when she was just 17 years old.

The settlement was made before the matter went to civil trial last February but now the royal engages a legal team to look at potentially overturning the agreement after Virginia dropped an eight-year legal battle against Alan Dershowitz in November, admitting she "may have made a mistake" in identifying him as man who abused her as a teenager, which he feels has damaged her credibility.

And Alan has urged the 62-year-old prince to go ahead with his attempt, believing it was a "mistake" not to take the matter to trial in the first place. He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper, "I have never understood why he accepted the settlement."

"There were many, many good defences he could have raised. I've thought right from the beginning, as soon as the deal was done, it was a mistake to do it. He should pursue every legal remedy and the media should investigate thoroughly all of the allegations because this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Alan also called on the media to launch a "deep investigation" into the allegations. He said, "I think that the media ought to do a deep investigation to determine the whole truth."

"Everybody should be interested in the truth coming out, the whole truth about everything and it's very important for the media to start digging deeply into all the allegations and do their due diligence on it … That's what should be reported, not just one side of the story."

Despite agreeing the settlement, Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.