American Virginia Giuffre renews her allegations against Prince Andrew in a BBC interview. And addresses the British people with emotional words.
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Virginia Giuffre suddenly stops. She gathers, takes a deep breath. “I just couldn’t understand how powerful people at the top government level could allow that,” she says. Her voice trembles. “Not only have it approved, but also participated in it.” Giuffre can no longer hold back her tears.
It is the most emotional moment in this highly anticipated interview that the British BBC aired late Monday night as part of a special. And that has become the next sensational episode in the abuse multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein committed suicide in a New York prison in early August. There is accusation in the room that he has abused dozens of minors and forced prostitution. In a way, he introduced them to other influential and friendly men.
Virginia Giuffre is said to have been one of these women. “It was passed around like a plate of fruit,” she told the BBC. According to her, she was passed around to Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and the Queen’s second youngest son.
What Virginia Giuffre is talking about in this interview makes it clear to her right at the beginning of the BBC contribution. She speaks directly to all the British: “I sincerely ask the UK citizens to stand by my side to help me fight this struggle, which is not acceptable as acceptable,” she says. “It’s not some shabby sex story. It’s a story about trafficking, it’s a story about abuse. And it’s a story about a member of your royal family.”
Giuffres’ word stands against Prince Andrew’s
Virginia Giuffre, then called Roberts, is married today and has three children. But she still has to struggle with the demons of the past, as her stories suggest: Like many others of Epstein’s young victims, she comes from simple and difficult circumstances, “broken homes”, as the Americans call it. She is abused as a child. As a servant in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, she then falls into the hands of Jeffrey Epstein’s confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, who offers to train her to become a massage therapist. Giuffre is young, helpless, exposed. According to her words, she does things that are ordered to her that she actually doesn’t want to do. Maxwell doesn’t train her as a therapist, but as Epstein’s sex slave. Giuffre spends almost two years in his haze before she runs away.
Giuffre says that three times during this time she was also forced to have sex with Prince Andrew. Between 2001 and 2002. Twice as a 17 year old. The first time she was in London with Epstein and Maxwell. Andrew gave her vodka at a London nightclub before he wanted to dance with her. “He’s the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life,” says Giuffre of the BBC. “It was terrible.” Andrew had sweated profusely, “his sweat was raining practically everywhere”. She was disgusted, but knew that she had to make him happy. Because Epstein and Maxwell would have expected that of her.
In the car back to Maxwell’s house, she then told her that she had to do for Andrew, which she did for Jeffrey Epstein. Already there she felt sick. Giuffre now has a difficult time telling stories. It didn’t take very long, she says, the whole procedure. “It was disgusting. He wasn’t mean or anything. He got up, thanked me and left. And I sat there in bed, horrified, ashamed, and felt dirty.” The morning after, Ghislaine Maxwell told her that she had done very well. “You really made him happy.” At this point Giuffre breaks his voice. She takes a deep breath. But she can’t suppress the tears.
Much attention will be paid to this moment of the interview because this story is about credibility. Giuffres’ word stands against Andrew’s. The prince denies all allegations. Despite years of friendship with Epstein, he does not want to have heard of his machinations. In a BBC interview in mid-November, he said he had no memory of what Giuffre claimed. But the appearance backfired, his statements were widely regarded as untrustworthy. His attempts to explain seemed to be offhand.
No authority is currently accusing Prince Andrew of misconduct
The day he is said to have abused Giuffre? He was at home there, he said, he still knows that today. He took his daughter Beatrice to a pizza express in Woking. He can remember it because it is really something extraordinary – he as a prince in the Pizza Express. And one more thing: He didn’t sweat at that time, as Giuffre says, because he suffered from a strange illness as a result of an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War: “It was almost impossible for me to sweat.”
And the picture she provided for her allegations? Prince Andrew shows, with his hand on Giuffres hip? He couldn’t remember that either. It could not be a picture of him in London because he wears clothes that he usually wears when traveling. In London he always wears a suit and tie. Because Giuffres interview was started last month, the American was unable to respond directly to the prince’s statements. The authenticity of the photo, however, reaffirmed her. You made it available to the FBI for investigation.
The BBC had decided to delay the publication of the Giuffre interview because Prince Andrew had in the meantime consented to an interview.
Prince Andrew appears to have been concerned about Giuffre’s allegations for a while. The BBC claims to have discovered an email from Andrews to Maxwell in 2015. The prince writes that he has some specific questions regarding Virginia Roberts. Maxwell replies, “Got some information. Call me when you have the time.”
According to the BBC, Giuffre had also filed charges of sex trafficking against Epstein and Maxwell in London. Scotland Yard did not want to pursue them further: the alleged crimes had largely occurred outside the UK. Therefore there is no jurisdiction. No authority is currently accusing Prince Andrew of misconduct. The son of the Queen, however, also emerged from the BBC broadcast, must expect to be summoned as a witness in the Epstein abuse case when traveling to the USA. Corresponding requests were made by five victims of abuse.
And Virginia Giuffre? Unlike Prince Andrew, she looked very definite in her statements. Structured and composed, emotionally agitated in the central part of the story. According to the BBC contribution, there are also inconsistencies in their descriptions. When asked about it, Giuffre says: “Sometimes you are left with a foggy memory. Yes, I may have been wrong with exact dates, definitely, or sometimes even with locations. But one thing I can assure you: you will never forget someone’s face, who lay on you and pressed you. “
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