london
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Virginia Giuffre feared she would “die as a sex slave” at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his circle, a prominent accuser wrote in her posthumous memoir.
“During the years I spent with them, they loaned me out to dozens of wealthy and powerful people. I was regularly used, humiliated and in some cases strangled, beaten and bloodied,” Giuffre wrote about Epstein and the sex trafficking ring, according to the BBC, which obtained an advance copy of the book, which will be published on Tuesday. “I believed I might die as a sex slave.”
Six months after her suicide in Australia, Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl, contains harrowing details of her alleged abuse as a teenager and the years she spent trying to win justice for herself and her fellow victims.
The memoir will intensify a transatlantic scandal over Epstein’s access to the rich and powerful, which has dealt a political blow in Britain and disrupted Congress for months in the United States. The publication of the paper brings new scrutiny to Prince Andrew, the disgraced British royal who was accused of sexually assaulting Giuffre when he was a teenager. King Charles’ younger brother Andrew vehemently denies the accusations against him.
Facing further public outrage over his relationship with Epstein, Mr Andrew announced last week that he would renounce the use of his royal title and would no longer be known as the Duke of York, saying: “As always, I have decided to put my duty to my family and country first.” However, since he is the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, he will retain his title of “prince”.
Buckingham Palace would have hoped that Prince Andrew’s decision would put an end to the scandals that have plagued the royal family for years, but the latest revelations in Giuffre’s memoir are likely to deepen the prince’s disgrace.
Britain’s PA media news agency reported that these included Giuffre’s claims that Andrew’s “team” hired online “trolls” to harass her around the time Andrew filed a civil suit against the prince in New York. Giuffre claimed that Epstein trafficked her and forced her to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, including when she was 17 years old.
Prince Andrew reportedly paid millions of dollars to settle a civil lawsuit in 2022, despite claiming he has never met her. Regarding the terms of the settlement, Giuffre said: “After years of questioning my credibility, and Prince Andrew’s team went so far as to hire internet trolls to embarrass me, the Duke of York also owed me a meaningful apology.”
Allegations that Andrew tried to hire trolls came after the Mail on Sunday reported in 2011 that Andrew had asked a police officer appointed as his bodyguard to dig up dirt on Giuffre. The Metropolitan Police said it was “actively investigating” the report.
Another damaging report revealed that Andrew maintained a friendship with Epstein two months after he claimed they had called it quits. In a disastrous 2019 BBC interview in which Prince Andrew’s attempt to clear his name backfired spectacularly, the prince claimed he ended his friendship with Epstein in December 2010 while walking in New York’s Central Park.
Newly discovered emails contradict that claim. The Mail on Sunday reported that in February 2011, a day after the British press published a photo of the prince with his arm around teenager Giuffre, Andrew wrote to Epstein: “Looks like we’re in this together and we have to get through it. Otherwise we’ll stay in close contact and play again soon!!!”
