Prince Andrew ‘knows what he’s done’ and should ‘come clean’, says Epstein sex victim
A woman who claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York when she was 17-years-old has dismissed his repeated denials and said she hopes “he comes clean about it”.
Prince Andrew “knows exactly what he’s done”, Virginia Roberts Giuffre said outside a New York court where a succession of women said the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them at a young age.
Many lamented that his jailhouse suicide earlier this month had deprived them of the opportunity to obtain justice. It later emerged that he signed a will just two days before his death, placing all his property, worth more than £469m, into a trust, making it harder for victims to claim.
Ms Giuffre has previously alleged in court papers filed in Florida, that she had sex with Prince Andrew “three times. She said she took part in ”one orgy” in London and one on “his private island in the Caribbean”.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly and strenuously denied the claim that he had sex with Ms Giuffre, who at 17 would have been under the age of consent in Florida.
“At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction,” he said in a statement over the weekend. “I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release in 2010 and I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think that what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know.”
He added: “I have tremendous sympathy for all those affected by his actions and behaviour. His suicide has left many unanswered questions and I acknowledge and sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure.”
His comments came after video footage emerged of him inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion in December 2010 – two years after the financier pleaded guilty to procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18.
The duke could be seen peering out of a door and waving to a woman.
The footage was taken around the same time that he was photographed in New York’s Central Park with the financier, who also counted former president Bill Clinton and current US leader Donald Trump among his friends.
Ms Giuffre has alleged that she 15 when was recruited to perform sex acts on Epstein when she was working at Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Speaking outside court on she said: “It’s not how Jeffrey died, it’s how he lived.”
http://players.brightcove.net/624246174001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5837728067001
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She added: “I won’t stop fighting – I will never be silenced until these people are brought to justice.”
Other women were invited to speak both inside and outside the court.
Jennifer Araoz, who has accused Epstein of raping her in his New York mansion when she was a 15-year-old aspiring actress, told the court: ”The fact I will never have a chance to face my predator in court eats away at my soul.”
Courtney Wild, who has said she was sexually abused by Epstein in Florida at age 14, called him a “coward” who had “robbed myself and all the other victims of our day in court to confront him.”
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