Prince
Andrew scandal: Virginia Giuffre pleads for UK public support
American
tells BBC she was told to have sex with royal by Jeffrey Epstein’s friend
Ghislaine Maxwell
Caroline
Davies
Tue 3 Dec
2019 07.32 GMTFirst published on Mon 2 Dec 2019 17.00 GMT
A
beleaguered Prince Andrew faced fresh embarrassment after his accuser Virginia
Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked as a teenager to have sex with him,
appeared on television to implore the British public to “not accept this as
being OK”.
In her
first UK broadcast interview, Giuffre repeated allegations she had sex with the
prince when she was aged 17 on the instructions of Ghislaine Maxwell, a
socialite and close friend of the US financier and sex offender, Jeffrey
Epstein, who killed himself in August.
The prince,
59, whose relationship with Epstein has led to him standing down from public
duties, has consistently and categorically denied the allegations, which
Buckingham Palace said were “false and without foundation”.
BBC
Panorama said it had uncovered a 2015 email from Andrew to Maxwell asking for
help dealing with the allegations by Giuffre, previously Virginia Roberts. He
wrote: “Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you
about Virginia Roberts,” to which Maxwell replied: “Have some info. Call me
when you have a moment.”
In the
interview that was broadcast on Monday, Giuffre said: “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.”
Panorama’s
The Prince and the Epstein Scandal claimed five of Epstein’s victims, who are
suing the financier’s estate, want Andrew to give witness evidence in their
court cases, and that he could have important evidence about Epstein’s sex
trafficking operation. Subpoenas could be served if he visits the US.
Lawyers for
the victims have twice written to the royal requesting an interview, but have
yet to receive a response, it said.
Giuffre,
now 35, says she was recruited to train as a masseuse by Maxwell while working
as a locker-room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. She
alleges she had sex with Andrew on three occasions between 2001 and 2002.
She
repeated her claims that she was instructed to have sex with Andrew after he
bought her a drink and asked her to dance at Tramp nightclub in London in 2001.
Of that
alleged encounter, she said Andrew was “the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen
in my life” and that she was “grossed out” because “this guy was sweating all
over me … his sweat was like it was raining basically”.
After they
left the club, she claimed, Maxwell told her “that I have to do for Andrew what
I do for Jeffrey, and that just made me sick”. She alleges that later that
evening, she had sex with Andrew at Maxwell’s house in Belgravia.
She said
the alleged sexual encounter started in a bath, but “it didn’t last very long,
the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting. He wasn’t mean or anything. But
he got up and he said ‘thanks’ and walked out, and I sat there in bed just horrified
and ashamed and felt dirty.” The next day, she claimed, Maxwell told her she
had done “a really good job”.
Giuffre
said it was a “wicked” and “scary” time in her life. “I had just been abused by
a member of the royal family.”
She said:
“I just didn’t expect it from royalty. I didn’t expect it from someone that
people look up to and admire in the royal family … I couldn’t comprehend how
the highest levels of the government, powerful people, were allowing this to
happen, not only allowing it to happen but participating in it.”
She was
interviewed by Panorama last month. Before the footage was ready to air, the
prince agreed to an interview with BBC’s Newsnight. The fallout from that
disastrous interview led to him being forced to withdraw from public life.
Though
Giuffre does not directly address Andrew’s account in her interview, which had
already been filmed, Panorama said she stood by every word.
Asked about
alleged “inconsistencies” in her account, Giuffre said she might have a “foggy
memory” about dates or places, but not about someone’s face.
In his
Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis, Andrew said: “I can categorically tell
you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady – none
whatsoever.”
He claimed
he had a medical condition that meant he did not sweat, and argued sex could
not have taken place, insisting he had been at a Pizza Express in Woking on the
same day.
Asked about
a 2001 photograph that appears to show him with his arm around Giuffre’s waist,
the prince said he did not recall it being taken, saying: “That’s me, but
whether that’s my hand.” He added that it was difficult to prove if it was fake
or not because “it’s a photograph of a photograph of a photograph”.
Giuffre
said the now infamous photograph, first published in 2011 by the Mail on
Sunday, which paid her $160,000 (£120,000) for her story, was genuine. She said
she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.
The
programme claimed a redacted court document shows she gave 20 photos to the
FBI, which were scanned front and back. But only 19 photos were shown in the
publicly available documents. Panorama had been told two missing reference
numbers related to the Andrew photo, and that it was removed from the public
document to protect his privacy.
Freelance
photographer Michael Thomas, who first copied the 2001 photograph, claimed it
was genuine, and told Panorama he found the original in 2011 in a bundle of 20
photos Giuffre handed to him from her travels with Epstein and Maxwell.
Another of
Epstein’s victims, Sarah Ransome, alleged in Panorama that Maxwell “controlled
the girls. She was like the madam. She was like the nuts and bolts of the sex
trafficking operation.”
Maxwell has
denied the allegations made against her. She has not been seen in public for
months, amid speculation over her continued contact with the prince.
Andrew has
said he did not see, witness or suspect any suspicious behaviour during his
visits to Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York and the Caribbean.
Buckingham
Palace has said the prince “unequivocally regrets his ill-judged association
with Jeffrey Epstein”, and that he “deeply sympathises with those affected who
want some form of closure”.
It added:
“It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact
or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and
without foundation.”
Giuffre’s
interview was broadcast as the prince faces calls for a parliamentary inquiry
into his business dealings, after the Mail on Sunday claimed he had been
enabling a friend’s business interests while working as a British trade envoy.
The
newspaper said it had seen a cache of documents, including leaked emails, about
Andrew’s links with David Rowland, and claimed the prince had been helping his
business interests, including promoting his private bank, while a trade envoy
for Britain.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário