Virginia Giuffre: Trafficking survivor who settled lawsuit against Duke of York

Virginia Giuffre was a central figure in the prolonged downfall of disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, settled a sexual assault lawsuit against the Duke of York, and became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors.

She came forward publicly after the initial investigation ended in an 18-month Florida jail term for Epstein, who made a secret deal and was released in 2009.

In subsequent lawsuits, it was said Ms Giuffre was a spa attendant as a teenager at Mar-a-Lago — US President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach club — when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

She was hired as a masseuse for Epstein and was flown around the world for meetings with men at his behest, while she was 17 and 18.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled as a suicide.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in New York in June 2022 after being found guilty of helping to recruit his underage victims.

British socialite Maxwell, who was labelled “dangerous” by the prosecution during her three-week trial, helped entice vulnerable teenagers to Epstein’s various properties for him to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004.

The duke paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre in 2022, whom he said he had never met.

American-born Ms Giuffre sued him for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by Epstein.

Ms Giuffre alleged the duke slept with her on three separate occasions.

She said in an interview with BBC Panorama in 2019 that she was left “horrified and ashamed” after an alleged sexual encounter with Andrew in London in 2001.

Ms Giuffre claimed she danced with Andrew in Tramp nightclub, adding he was “the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life” and “his sweat was… raining basically everywhere”.

Although the parties settled the case, the agreement is not an admission of guilt from the duke and he has always strenuously denied the allegations against him.

In a Newsnight interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in November 2019, Andrew denied claims that he slept with Ms Giuffre on three separate occasions, saying: “I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.”

The duke also said he has no memory of a well-known photograph of him with his arm around Ms Giuffre’s waist at Maxwell’s house, and has questioned whether it was his own hand in the image.

Andrew claimed in his Newsnight interview that he had a medical condition in 2001, after suffering an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when he was shot at, that meant he did not sweat.

He said the alleged encounter with Ms Giuffre in 2001 did not happen and he spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.

The fallout from the interview saw the royal criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards Epstein’s victims and a lack of remorse over his friendship with the disgraced financier.

American-born Ms Giuffre lived in Australia for years and became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors.

She founded a charity, Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), which launched in recent years, and says on its website it “is dedicated to providing a safe and empowering space for survivors of sex trafficking to reclaim their stories and stand up for themselves and each other”.

In a victim statement read to a New York court during the sentencing of Maxwell in 2022 for sex-trafficking crimes, Ms Giuffre spoke of the profound impact of the abuse she suffered.

She told the court that Maxwell and Epstein had “damaged me physically, mentally, sexually, and emotionally”.

“Together, you did unthinkable things that still have a corrosive impact on me to this day,” she said.

“Ghislaine, the pain you have caused me is almost indescribable. Because of your choices and the world you brought me into, I don’t sleep. Nightmares wake me at all hours,” Giuffre said in the statement.

“In those dreams, I relive the awful things you and others did to me and the things you forced me to do.

“Those memories will never go away.”

She added: “I will never give up. I will never go away. If you ever get out of prison, I will be here, watching you, making sure you never hurt anyone else again.”

Ms Giuffre, who was believed to have separated from her husband, was treated in an Australian hospital after a serious accident, her publicist said last month.

She did not answer questions about the date, location, nature or other specifics of the accident and about the accuracy of an Instagram post that appeared from Ms Giuffre in which she said she had been in a car that was hit by a school bus, and her prognosis was dire.

She was rushed to a Perth hospital following the collision on March 24.

In an emotional post on social media, she expressed that she was ready to die.

“I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology,” she said.

“I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time.”

According to reports, a spokesperson for Ms Giuffre said the Instagram post was a mistake and she had meant to share the post to her private Facebook page.

She was charged with breaching a family violence restraining order in Ocean Reef, near Perth, on February 2, Western Australia (WA) Courts said.

Ms Giuffre’s case was first heard in Joondalup Magistrates’ Court in northern Perth on March 14, where she did not enter a plea.

The matter was adjourned to June 11 for a plea hearing, according to Western Australia Courts.

Ms Giuffre died aged 41 on Friday and is survived by her three children.

She is understood to have died at her farm in Western Australia.

Police confirmed emergency services received reports of an unresponsive woman at a property in the Perth suburb of Neergabby on Friday night.

Her family said in a statement Ms Giuffre was a “fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse” but that the “toll of abuse … became unbearable”, the BBC reports.

The statement added: “She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.”