BRAVE Virginia Giuffre never got over the horrific trauma caused by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, an expert has said.
Prince Andrew’s sex accuser died by suicide– having shared cryptic posts on Instagram claiming she had four days to live earlier this month.
The tragic mum-of-three was found dead at her farm in Western Australia yesterday, her family confirmed this morning.
Ms Giuffre was sex trafficked by billionaire financier Epstein and later accused the Duke of York, 64, of sexually abusing her multiple times when she was as young as 17.
The royal paid her millions of pounds as part of an out of court settlement in March 2022.
However, this was not an indication of guilt and he has always denied the allegations.
‘Evil and manipulative’
Royal expert and author Hugo Vickers said today it is a tragedy that Ms Giuffre was caught up with “evil and manipulative” Epstein as a teenager.
However, he said it is currently unclear as to why she had died, suggesting her recent social media posts were “a rather desperate appeal to her children, from whom she was clearly estranged”.
Referring to Ms Giuffre’s childhood, Mr Vickers told The Sun: “The rough trajectory of her life seems to me that, she was being abused on the streets, and she probably saw Epstein as a way out of that.”
He added that she then “got considerably out of her depth because he was a very evil and manipulative man”.
“Anyone who got involved with him did so at their peril, and that includes Prince Andrew, and that certainly includes Virginia Giuffre,” he said.
Convicted paedophile Epstein died by suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City in July 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Months later, Andrew gave a car crash interview on BBC’s Newsnight in which he failed to say he regretted his friendship with the disgraced financier.
He also denied having any recollection of meeting Ms Giuffre, then Roberts, despite a photo showing him apparently with his arm around her in 2001.
As a result, the duke was ultimately stripped of all royal duties by the late Queen Elizabeth.
‘Misinterpreted and twisted’
Asked if Andrew is likely to comment in light of Ms Giuffre’s death, Mr Vickers said: “Whatever he says will be misinterpreted and twisted anyway, so he’d probably be wise not to say anything at all.”
He said the Andrew sex scandal has potentially “taken its toll on her (Ms Giuffre’s) mental state”.
“There are still a great number of unanswered questions about the whole Epstein saga,” Mr Vickers added.
Ms Giuffre has campaigned to highlight the stories of other Epstein trafficking victims, which the royal expert said had been “effective”.
“But there seems to be quite a lot of things that we don’t know about, which were going on in the background,” he said, referring to Ms Giuffre’s personal life in recent months.
“Potential court hearings, restraining orders, a breakdown of the marriage, estrangement from the children.
“It’s obviously the end of a series of very tragic circumstances that has brought her to this point.”
He added: “I have huge sympathy for anyone who gets into such a desperate situation that they take their own life.”
Who was Virginia Giuffre?
VIRGINIA Roberts - later Virginia Giuffre, 41, was an American-Australian campaigner and a prominent victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein.
She made claims against Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, as well as Brit socialite Ghislaine Maxwell – Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-lover.
Giuffre alleged in court documents that she was procured by Maxwell, 63, the daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, as a teenage “sex slave” for Epstein.
She released a manuscript just hours before Epstein’s death, which added to more than 2,000 documents of a lawsuit pending against the former financier and his pals.
The legal documents were released in a defamation case involving Giuffre, who has claimed in court documents that Prince Andrew slept with her three times.
In 2019, Virginia Roberts claimed that she had sex with Prince Andrew in a toilet when she was 17, after a night where he had allegedly been plying her with vodka in a posh London club.
On February 15, 2022, it was announced that Prince Andrew settled the lawsuit – sparing him a humiliating court battle.
The mum-of-three died by suicide on April 26 aged 41 at her home in Western Australia just weeks after she was treated in an Australian hospital following a bus crash.
American-Australian Ms Giuffre claimed in court documents that she was procured by Ghislaine Maxwell, 57, the daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, as a teenage “sex slave” for Epstein.
She released a manuscript just hours before Epstein’s death, which added to more than 2,000 documents of a lawsuit pending against the former financier and his pals.
The legal documents were released in a defamation case involving Ms Giuffre, who has claimed in court documents that Andrew slept with her three times.
She alleged she had sex with the duke in a toilet when she was 17, after a night where he had allegedly been plying her with vodka in a posh London club.
Mr Vickers added: “I think, as it unfolds, it’s going to be we’re going to see probably a saga of horrific events, quite frankly.”
‘Unbearable weight of abuse’
In a heartbreaking tribute, Ms Giuffre’s family said the toll of her abuse was “so heavy” it became “unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight”.
They said in a statement today: “It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia.
“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”
They added: “Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.
“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
