This archive report was first published on 3 December 2019.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre's account of a whirlwind trip to London with her employer, financier Jeffrey Epstein, in 2001 has shed new light on the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew's ties to the convicted pedophile.
Ms. Giuffre, who was 17 at the time, recalled the trip in an interview broadcast by the BBC on Monday, describing how it began at a townhouse where Prince Andrew was talking about his ex-wife, the Duchess of York.
She said the trip then moved on to a club, where she and Prince Andrew danced together, and he sweated profusely. Ms. Giuffre alleged that she was then ordered to have sex with Prince Andrew, an encounter she described as 'disgusting'.
'I sat there in bed and felt horrified and ashamed,' Ms. Giuffre said in the interview. 'I had just been abused by a member of the royal family. These powerful people were my chains.'
Ms. Giuffre's account of the trip, and of two other incidents when she said she had sex with Prince Andrew at Mr. Epstein's homes in New York and in the Caribbean, was the first time she described her story for a British audience.
Prince Andrew has denied the allegations, saying in his own recent BBC interview that he had no recollection of meeting Ms. Giuffre. However, Ms. Giuffre was adamant that Prince Andrew knew what had happened, saying 'He knows what happened. I know what happened. There's only one of us telling the truth, and I know it's me.'
Ms. Giuffre acknowledged that the passage of time may have fogged her memory about the dates or places of certain events. However, she said she had a vivid memory of dancing with Prince Andrew, describing him as 'the most hideous dancer I've ever seen in my life.'
For Prince Andrew, the interview may be most significant because it underscores his potential legal exposure in the criminal cases involving Mr. Epstein. The BBC program, Panorama, reported that David Boies, a lawyer representing five women who say they were abused by Mr. Epstein, plans to serve subpoenas to force Prince Andrew to testify as a witness in those cases.
