Today, one of the women who came forward about being recruited into Jeffrey Epstein's high-profile sex trafficking ring told NBC that she was instructed to have sex with Prince Andrew.
"He was an abuser. He was a participant," Virginia Roberts Giuffre told NBC's Savannah Guthrie in a taped interview.
Giuffre said she was recruited into Epstein's operation by associate Ghislaine Maxwell while she was working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago. NBC showed a photo of then 17-year-old Giuffre smiling next to the Duke of York and Maxwell. Giuffre said the photo was taken near a bathroom where Prince Andrew later sexually abused her.
“Ghislaine said, ‘He’s coming back to the house. And I want you to do for him (Prince Andrew) what you do for Epstein.’” Virginia Roberts Giuffre shares details about her previous encounter with Prince Andrew at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London townhome. pic.twitter.com/IZVYaIfdTtSeptember 20, 2019
"I was so young," Giuffre said. "Ghislaine woke me up in the morning and said, 'You're gonna meet a prince today.' I didn't know at that point that I was going to be trafficked to that prince."
She said that the Duke arrived to Maxwell's home in London and took her out to Club Tramp, where he bought her alcohol in the VIP section and they danced.
"Ghislaine said, 'He's coming back to the house and I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein," Giuffre said. "I couldn't believe it."
Giuffre also told Guthrie that the sexual abuse eventually moved from the bathroom into the bedroom. She said, "He wasn't rude or anything about it. He said, you know, 'Thank you,' and some kind of soft sentiments like that, and left. I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that even royalty were involved."
He abused her twice more after that initial event, once in Epstein's New York home and another in Epstein's Virgin Islands estate, Giuffre said.
Buckingham Palace responded to Giuffre's account, telling NBC in a statement, "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." Buckingham Palace has previously denied Giuffre's accusation. Prince Andrew has also put out a statement (opens in new tab) saying his friendship with the disgraced Epstein was "a mistake and an error."
To that, Giuffre said, "He knows the truth and I know the truth."
Maxwell has also denied the accusations against her.
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