Virginia Giuffre: What we know about Prince Andrew's accuser - BBC news

Virginia Giuffre arriving for hearing in the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein, at Federal Court in New York, U.S., August 27, 2019.

photograph supply, Reuters image caption,

Virginia Giuffre has filed a civil case in opposition t Prince Andrew in the US

American Virginia Giuffre says she become the sufferer of intercourse trafficking and abuse with the aid of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful acquaintances when she changed into a young person.

She is now on the centre of one of the realm's most excessive-profile prison battles, after launching a civil case towards Britain's Prince Andrew.

The royal has normally denied her allegations of sexual abuse. however his lawyers' efforts to have the case thrown out at an early stage have to date failed, placing a civil trial in big apple in the autumn on the horizon.

right here's what we know about Virginia Giuffre.

'Childhood taken away'

Ms Giuffre become born as Virginia Roberts in 1983 within the US state of California. Her family later relocated to Florida.

at the age of seven, she says she become sexually abused via a family unit buddy, and her "childhood changed into without delay taken away".

"i used to be just so mentally scarred already at this kind of younger age, and i ran far from that," she informed the BBC's Panorama in 2019.

Later in her childhood, she was in and out of foster care. And through the age of 14, she became dwelling on the streets where she says she discovered nothing "other than starvation and ache and [more] abuse".

It was in the year 2000, while making an attempt to rebuild her lifestyles, that she met British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Media caption,

Virginia Giuffre: "I implore the people within the UK... to no longer settle for this as being ok"

Ms Giuffre became working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago hotel in Palm seashore, and says Maxwell provided her an interview for the possibility to train as a therapeutic massage therapist.

"I ran over to my dad who works on the tennis courts at Mar-a-Lago, and he is aware of i'm attempting to repair my existence up at that factor, which is why he got me the job there. I referred to: 'you might be now not going to trust it dad'," she recalled.

meeting Epstein

When Ms Giuffre arrived at Epstein's home in Palm seashore, she says he changed into mendacity down naked and he or she become recommended by using Maxwell on a way to massage him.

"through that point they have been asking me questions about who i was.

"They appeared like satisfactory individuals so I relied on them, and that i informed them i'd had a very difficult time in my lifestyles up except then - i'd been a runaway, i would been sexually abused, physically abused… That became the worst element I might have informed them as a result of now they knew how inclined i used to be," she told the BBC.

Ms Giuffre noted what she had expected to be a job interview soon turned into the beginning of years of abuse.

Maxwell became discovered responsible final month of recruiting and trafficking young ladies for Epstein to abuse, and is waiting for sentencing.

while Ms Giuffre changed into referenced on many events in court docket, she became no longer one of the most 4 ladies who testified if that's the case. Maxwell has denied assaulting her.

In 2015, Ms Giuffre filed a defamation case in opposition t Maxwell after she accused her of being a liar. The case has considering that been settled.

Prince Andrew allegations

Ms Giuffre says she went from being abused via Epstein to being "handed around like a platter of fruit" amongst his powerful friends, as she was taken worldwide on deepest jets.

In 2001, then aged 17, she says Epstein introduced her to London and introduced her to Prince Andrew. A now famous image that she says became taken on that night suggests the prince along with his arm round Ms Giuffre, as Maxwell smiles within the historical past.

Virginia Giuffre describes how she asked Jeffrey Epstein to take this picture of her with Andrew.

photo source, Virginia Roberts picture caption,

Virginia Giuffre says she requested Jeffrey Epstein to take this photo of her with Prince Andrew

After going to a nightclub, Ms Giuffre says she turned into instructed through Maxwell that she "had to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey".

"It changed into a very scary time in my existence… I wasn't chained to a sink, however these powerful people have been my chains," she instructed the BBC.

In her civil case, Ms Giuffre alleges that the prince sexually abused her three times - at Maxwell's London domestic that nighttime, and later at Epstein's homes in big apple and Little St James within the Virgin Islands.

Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son, observed in an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had no recollection of ever assembly Ms Giuffre, and, according to her account of them having sex within the US and UK, that it "failed to occur".

Getting away

Ms Giuffre advised the Miami Herald that by means of 2003 Epstein had lost interest in her as a result of she turned into too historic for him.

She observed she convinced the prosperous financier to pay for her to get practicing to develop into a true expert masseuse and he arranged for her to take a class in Thailand. however she was additionally anticipated to deliver domestic a Thai girl that Epstein had organized to return to the USA.

as an alternative, Ms Giuffre met a person on the commute whom she fell in love with and married 10 days later. She moved with him to Australia to beginning a family unit.

Ms Giuffre now lives in a large condominium on the coast of Perth with her husband and three children.

She has headquartered a non-profit enterprise known as talk Out, Act, Reclaim (start), aimed toward "educating and advocating for victims of trafficking".

"there are so many more americans concerned with this," she observed.

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