Amy McClure, pictured at age 21 - around the time of the alleged attack. Photo / Amy McClure via news.com.au
Amy McClure, pictured at age 21 - around the time of the alleged attack. Photo / Amy McClure via news.com.au
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Jeffrey Epstein's "first known victim" revealed how the billionaire paedophile mocked her for being too old at 21 before throwing her to the ground and allegedly raping her.
Speaking publicly for the first time, new accuser Amy McClure, told The Sun Online how she went to see sex predator Epstein, who would later be accused of child sex trafficking, under the impression he could help boost her modelling career.
The alleged rape took place in 1993 — believed to be one of the earliest allegations — meaning that Epstein's reign of terror may have spanned almost 30 years, The Sun reports.
Former model Amy McClure is believed to be Jeffrey Epstein's first known victim. Photo / Amy McClure via news.com.au
Now in an exclusive interview, McClure has urged Epstein's friend Prince Andrew and alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell to come forward and give her and the other accusers some "real answers" about what they know and why they remained close to him even after his first conviction.
She slammed Maxwell, whom she never met, for being "worse than Epstein" describing her as "like some kind of Disney villain" who gained the trust of young girls then gave them to Epstein "like baby mice to a snake".
And she told how she has been wracked with guilt for years for never reporting the alleged rape and alerting authorities to the predator in the early '90s.
McClure — known then as Amy Sparks — told how the billionaire financier was naked and receiving a massage when she first showed up at his New York address.
She said he then dismissed the masseuse and told McClure to remove her clothes so he could get a better look at her body.
Thinking this was normal practice in the modelling world, she stripped off before she claims "smiling" Epstein suddenly changed, forced her to give him oral sex, then threw her to the floor and raped her.
"I remember him asking me to take off my clothes, saying, 'I just want to see what you look like. It's no big deal'," McClure recalled.
"So I did, I took my clothes off and then he made me feel really like s*** cause he's said: 'How old are you?'
"When I told him I was 21, that's when he got irritated, almost angry. He said something like 'You're too, you're too old. You're getting too old for this. What are you doing?' I don't remember exactly what he said … but I remember it was crushing.
Jeffrey Epstein's reign of terror may have spanned almost 30 years.
"Then he asked me to finish off his massage and I didn't really know what to do and he turned around, flipped over, grabbed my head and pushed it down on him, while he was on the massage table.
"Then at that point he pushed me to the ground, and forced himself upon me and raped me.
"I remember trying to fight him off and telling him to stop. It wasn't prolonged.
"He just made me feel like I wasn't good enough for anything, not even worth his time or effort or anything. I just felt embarrassed and ashamed and stupid."
McClure says she's decided to speak out after all these years in solidarity with Epstein's other victims. She says she feel guilty for failing to report Epstein back in 1993 because doing so may have saved some of his later victims.
Epstein was convicted of child sex crimes in 2008 but only served 13 months as part of a "sweetheart deal" with prosecutors.
He was arrested again in 2019 and charged with a raft of sex trafficking offences but died in his jail cell in August in what officials ruled was a suicide.
"I can only say that if there was anything I could have done or changed, I could always say I'm sorry, but I don't believe that I could have had any effect," an emotional McClure said.
"I don't think there's anything I could have done … even today there's still people out there that are untouchable. They just are.
"The law does not apply in the same way. And until it does, these people still get away with abusing these young girls."
Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts (now Guiffre) who says she was forced to have sex with him. Photo / File
She also spoke out about Prince Andrew, saying his recent BBC interview made her "angry" and she urged Ghislaine Maxwell, whose whereabouts remain unknown, to come forward.
"Why would anyone do business with or remain friends with Jeffrey Epstein after what he was convicted of? Prince Andrew should have ostracised him and he didn't," she said.
"It wasn't just an allegation, he was actually convicted. And Prince Andrew says he stayed with him because it's 'convenient' it's just horrible, it's not how society should be.
"I didn't meet Ghislaine, I can't imagine a woman doing the things she's accused of. He's a sick, sick monster of a man but if it's true that she found these young girls for him and set it all up, she's even worse.
"I don't get how evil of a witch you'd have to be to go along with a man like this – like a Disney villain. In a situation where there's a woman who is saying 'This is all OK,' 'This is normal' – acting like a mother figure to these young girls, setting it all up, it's just sick.
"She was this wealthy, confident, well-travelled woman and she had power, and it seems like she used that power and utilised it to drop these young girls to Epstein like baby mice to a snake.
"She needs to come forward and explain herself to all the victims."
Amy McClure had been modelling in California for a few years before she decided to go to New York to see if she could "make it big". Photo / Amy McClure via news.com.au
McClure, originally from Oklahoma, had been living and modelling in California for a few years before she decided to take a trip to New York to see if she could "make it big".
She saved up money to buy her ticket and a hotel stay in the up-market Plaza Hotel, Manhattan before visiting several modelling agencies to show off her portfolio.
It was in the Ford modelling agency that a young receptionist invited her to a party in an apartment in the Central Park West area of New York, telling her there would be lots of people from the fashion industry there.
"I wasn't going to go to the party but then I thought I might meet some kind of Prince Charming, some sort of fairytale might happen," she said.
"I did go around talking to people, trying to meet people and schmooze and flirt. Everybody thought I was a lot younger than I was, maybe it's because I acted so naive.
"I remember meeting a French guy and I was very excited because I could speak a little French back then and I was speaking it to him.
"He took a liking to me and told me that they knew somebody called Jeffrey Epstein who was in this (fashion) world and he would love me, that I'm definitely the type of person he would like.
"I remember thinking he would be someone who could help me or manage me … I remember being so happy."
The next day, McClure took a taxi to the Manhattan address which she described as a "fancy, Gothic building, that didn't look like all the places around it".
It was here that she was led straight upstairs to the room where Epstein was lying naked having a massage.
She recalls how he seemed cheerful and nice at first, but that quickly changed and he became "mean" and "dark" before she claims he violently raped her.
Following the alleged attack, McClure recalls shaking and quickly putting her clothes on, grabbing her modelling portfolio and running out.
"I remember grabbing my clothes but I forgot my modelling book so I went to grab it — because that kind of thing was irreplaceable in those days," she said.
"I remember him saying something like, 'Why do you even need that?' or something like that.
"Then he said, 'If you tell anybody anything I'll crush whatever career you might have' or something like that. He was just so mean so quickly. It literally went from awkward to mean to rape so fast."
Amy McClure visited several modelling agencies to show off her portfolio. Photo / Amy McClure via news.com.au
McClure booked a ticket to Oklahoma soon after and flew to see her mum Cindy, who she told about the attack.
Cindy confirmed to Sun Online that she remembered her daughter flying from New York around 1993 and telling her she was sexually assaulted by a "rich and powerful man".
She and her mum felt it would be pointless to try and report the alleged assault at the time.
"I didn't say anything to anyone at the time because I felt like it would come across and look like it was my fault," McClure said.
"I thought people would say, 'What were you doing there? Why did you go? Why did you take your clothes off?'
"Especially being from Oklahoma – you don't do stuff like that, you don't take your clothes off.
"I felt nobody would believe me. I blamed myself for a lot of it.
"And I didn't know what anyone could do anyway, these people were from a different world — they were rich, untouchable. Although I didn't know quite how untouchable back then."
McClure tried to forget about the alleged rape but says she feels it had an effect on her whole life, causing her to lose confidence and lose trust in people.
She then bumped into Epstein several years later in a steakhouse in Palm Beach, Florida, when she was dating former Calvin Klein chief executive Arnold Simon, who she later had a daughter with.
"It was awful. He didn't recognise me at all," she said.
"I recognised him though — he didn't even look that much different, he had that same smug smile and he was so happy.
"I remember I was shocked because I thought I wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line up but I did it instantaneously. I didn't want to make a scene or be embarrassing.
"Seeing him made me feel nauseous I just bolted to the bathroom and stayed there for a long time."
Amy McClure says she regrets not reporting Jeffrey Epstein to police at the time but felt nobody would believe her. Photo / Amy McClure via news.com.au
McClure says it was hard to come forward but she now hopes to inspire other women who have been victims of powerful men to tell their stories.
She cannot bring a lawsuit against Epstein's estate because the statute of limitations has run out, but she will be co-operating with the US District Attorney's office in case she can provide help in cases against Epstein's co-conspirators.
"Amy McClure is my client and we are currently investigating whether or not there is an ability to file suit in New York on her behalf with respect to Mr Epstein's estate," her lawyer Spencer Kuvin said.
He also confirmed that he had "independently verified" his client's story and believed she would be successful if she were able to file a lawsuit.
Meanwhile, McClure is angry Epstein never received the punishment he deserved for his crimes.
"He effectively got away with it really all the way until the end," she said.
"He still had people that didn't stand up and tell him what a monster he is.
"I wish he was alive today to watch whatever he cared about be dismantled around him — I mean there's just nothing you could take from somebody like that — that would be equivalent to me in New York with all my lofty dreams and having that stripped away, and being made to feel I was just this ridiculous old lady because I was 21.
"I look back on it and I just think, 'Oh my gosh, how many other people did he crush their spirits in that way?'
"And it's not just a physical act of rape. You can also rape someone's dreams and their soul, their future forever.
"And there's not any way to pay any of these women back for that."
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