Who is Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Giuffre?
World
Who is Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Giuffre?
NEW YORK (AFP) - Prince Andrew has settled a sexual assault lawsuit brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, agreeing to make an unspecified donation to her charity established in support of sex trafficking victims.
Here is a profile of Giuffre, a longtime accuser of the disgraced British royal:
- Early life -
Giuffre, now 38, was born Virginia Roberts into a troubled home in Sacramento, California in August 1983. She ran away several times and spent time living on the streets.
In 2000, at the age of 16, she worked a summer job as a spa attendant at former US president Donald Trump s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
It was there, Giuffre says, that she met British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell who she said offered her a job as a traveling masseuse for a rich financier: Jeffrey Epstein.
- Groomed by Epstein -
Giuffre says Epstein sexually abused her from the very first massage at his Palm Beach mansion. He and Maxwell then began trafficking her to his wealthy friends, she alleges.
She told the 2020 Netflix documentary "Jeffrey Epstein, Filthy Rich" that she had been "like a slave" to them.
Giuffre added that she had been a "perfect victim" because she had been sexually abused "plenty of times" before meeting Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
His death came a day after a US judge ordered unsealed a legal document in which Giuffre named several high-profile personalities as perpetrators of sexual abuse against her. It included Andrew.
- Accusations against Andrew -
Giuffre sued Andrew in August 2021, alleging that he sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was 17 and a minor under American law.
She says she was instructed by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with the prince at Maxwell s home in Belgravia in London.
Giuffre s lawyers submitted a photo of her with Andrew and Maxwell as evidence.
Giuffre also accused the royal of assaulting her at Epstein s home in New York, and on Epstein s private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Andrew, 61, had not been criminally charged and has vehemently and repeatedly denied her allegations, saying he has no recollection of ever having met her.
The court filing revealing Andrew s settlement with Giuffre makes no admission of guilt.
It says however that Andrew "never intended to malign" Giuffre s character, that he accepts she was a victim of abuse, and regrets his association with Epstein.
The conciliatory language was in stark contrast to October when Andrew s lawyers accused Giuffre of seeking to profit from a "baseless lawsuit."
- Other lawsuits -
Giuffre had previously agreed to drop a sexual abuse lawsuit against Epstein for $500,000 in 2009. That settlement purported to protect "other potential defendants" but a US judge ruled last month that it did not cover Andrew.
Giuffre also settled a defamation suit against Maxwell for an undisclosed sum in 2017 and in 2019 sued celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who strongly denies her allegations that she was forced to have sex with him.
- Maxwell trial -
Despite being Maxwell and Epstein s most famous accuser, Giuffre was not part of the criminal case that saw Maxwell convicted in December on five counts of grooming and recruiting minors for Epstein in month.
Her name cropped up during the trial, though.
Flight logs mentioned during the trial revealed that Giuffre flew 32 times with Epstein between the late 1990s and early 2000s.
She says she first met Andrew on a Tangier to Luton flight in March 2001.
During testimony, one of the victims, "Carolyn," said she was 14 years old when Giuffre, a friend of hers, took her to meet Epstein.
"Virginia asked me if I wanted to make some money," said Carolyn, recalling that Giuffre told her she got $300 for each massage, which always ended in sex.
Giuffre said in the Netflix documentary that she "escalated up the ladder very quickly with Epstein."
"I did whatever he needed. Unfortunately, I didn t see my life getting any better, so I stayed," she said.
Carolyn told the Daily Mail that Giuffre had told her in 2001 that she had slept with Andrew.
- Where is she now? -
Giuffre escaped Epstein s clutches in 2002 when she flew to Thailand to attend massage training school. There she met her future husband Robert Giuffre. They live in Australia with their three children.
Last year, Giuffre founded "Speak Out, Act, Reclaim," a support group for victims of sex trafficking and sexual abuse.
