Virginia Giuffre in her BBC interview. Photo / BBC
Virginia Giuffre in her BBC interview. Photo / BBC
Virginia Giuffre, the woman who claims she was forced into being a sex slave for Jeffrey Epstein, has recounted the moment the convicted paedophile began to take advantage of her.
In Ms Giuffre's bombshell new interview from earlier today, the now 36-year-old again claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and was made to have sex with Prince Andrew three times in 2001 and 2002, when she was 17 years old.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, 59, has vehemently denied he had sex with her and said he had no recollection of meeting her in a world-first interview with Newsnight last month.
Epstein was found dead in a New York prison in August awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, news.com.au reported.
Ms Giuffre, who now lives in Australia with her husband, said on BBC's Panorama that in hindsight, she realised it was in one of her first job interviews with Epstein that things took a turn for the worse.
After being asked to give Epstein a massage during the interview, the disgraced and now-dead financier asked her questions.
"Through that time, they were asking me questions about who I was … I really wanted them to know about how important it was to me to be educated," Ms Giuffre told Panorama.
"They seemed like nice people … I told them I've had a really hard time … including that I was abused.
"That was the worst thing I could have told them because now they knew how vulnerable I was … It was like a gift for them."
Ms Giuffre claims that after telling Epstein about being abused, she "fell right back into that circle".
"I thought … this must be what life's about," she said. "It was a real big kick in the gut … so I let them abuse me."
In her tell-all interview, which was filmed before Prince Andrew's trainwreck hour-long chat on the BBC, Ms Giuffre described how the alleged encounters with Epstein and other wealthy men often began under the guise of a massage.
Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, aged 17, with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background. Photo / Supplied
The massages, Ms Giuffre claimed, would then quickly turn sexual.
"(I) went from being abused by Epstein to then being passed around like a platter — a platter of fruit."
Ms Giuffre's voice shook as she spoke about her alleged sexual encounter with Prince Andrew, which she claims happened during a two-day visit to London in March 2001.
"He wasn't mean or anything," she said. "He got up and he said 'thanks' and walked out and I just sat there in bed, just horrified and ashamed and felt dirty and had to get up and have a shower."
Ms Giuffre had been staying at the home of Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell when the alleged sex happened.
The day after she allegedly had sex with the Prince, Ms Maxwell allegedly told the then-teenager she "did a really good job".
"It was a wicked time in my life. It was a really scary time in my life. I had just been abused by a member of the royal family," Ms Giuffre said, breaking down into tears.
"I couldn't comprehend how in the highest levels in the government powerful people were allowing this to happen. Not only allowing it to happen, but participating in it."
Ms Giuffre admitted to having a "foggy memory" over dates and places when she was asked about inconsistencies in her story.
"I might be wrong on dates, I might be wrong on places sometimes, but one thing I can tell you is you never forget the face of someone who has heaved over you," she said.
Virginia Giuffre in her BBC interview. Photo / BBC
"I implore the people in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being OK.
"This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked, this is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guy's royalty."
After his BBC interview, Prince Andrew issued a statement in which he said "I … unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein" and "deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure".
A statement from Buckingham Palace said they "emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts."
