PRINCE Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre last night implored the British public to “stand up beside me to help me fight this fight” and “not accept this as being OK”.
Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with the Duke of York when she was a teenager, which Andrew categorically denies.
In an interview with BBC Panorama, Giuffre said the duke asked her to dance at Tramp nightclub in London, adding that he was “the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life” and that: “It was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me.”
Giuffre said that when they had left the club, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s then-girlfriend, gave her instructions. She said: “In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey and that just made me sick.”
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Giuffre said that later that evening she had sex with Andrew upstairs at Maxwell’s house in Belgravia.
She told Panorama: “I implore 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 you guys’ royalty.”
During the hour-long investigative programme entitled The Prince and the Epstein Scandal, Giuffre alleged she was brought to London by Epstein in 2001. She said she was introduced to Andrew and taken to Tramp nightclub, where the duke asked her to dance.
Giuffre told Panorama reporter Darragh Macintyre: “He is the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life. It was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me, his sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere, I was just like grossed out from it, but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine [daughter of the former newspaper owner Robert Maxwell] would have expected from me.”
In his recent Newsnight interview, Andrew claimed he had a medical condition in 2001 that meant he did not sweat. He has “categorically” denied meeting Giuffre, then called Virginia Roberts.
The duke has been pictured with his arm around Giuffre’s waist but says he has no memory of the photo being taken and questioned whether it was his hand in the image.
Giuffre told Panorama: “The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses. Like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, come on, I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is. He knows what happened. I know what happened and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me.”
Andrew’s attempts to defend himself and explain his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein in a BBC Newsnight interview last month were branded a “car crash” and led to him withdrawing from public duties.
Giuffre claimed in court papers in Florida that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, below the state’s age of consent. Giuffre alleges the duke slept with her on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage.
Buckingham Palace has called the allegations “false and without any foundation”, adding “any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors” was “categorically untrue”. Giuffre’s interview took place before the duke’s Newsnight appearance.
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