Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex trafficking victims, is speaking out following Ghislaine Maxwell's guilty verdict.
On Wednesday, Dec. 29, the late financier's girlfriend was convicted of federal sex trafficking charges and found guilty of helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. Giuffre, 38, did not testify during Maxwell's trial, which focused on acts against four other people, but later took to Twitter to voice her thoughts on the outcome.
"My soul yearned for justice for years and today the jury gave me just that. I will remember this day always," she tweeted. "Having lived with the horrors of Maxwell's abuse, my heart goes out to the many other girls and young women who suffered at her hands and whose lives she destroyed."
Giuffre added, "I hope that today is not the end but rather another step in justice being served. Maxwell did not act alone. Others must be held accountable. I have faith that they will be."
Maxwell, 60, was accused of recruiting and grooming four teenage girls between 1994 and 2004 for Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in 2019 in jail while awaiting his own sex abuse trial.
Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison for her five out of six guilty counts, including one for sex trafficking. Her lawyers have vowed to appeal her case.
Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Epstein when she was underage. In 2009, they reached a settlement, which is set to be made public next week. The document is expected to affect her current civil sex abuse lawsuit against Epstein's former friend, the U.K's Prince Andrew, which she filed in August. She accuses the royal, Queen Elizabeth II's 61-year-old son, of forcing her to have sex more than two decades ago, when she was under the age of 18.
"[Giuffre] became a victim of sex trafficking and repeated sexual abuse after Maxwell recruited her into Epstein's sex-trafficking operation when [Giuffre] was working at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida," Giuffre's civil lawsuit against Andrew states.
According to her filing, "In addition to being abused by Epstein himself, [Giuffre] was also forced to have sex with Defendant, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, at Epstein and Maxwell's direction...On one occasion, Prince Andrew sexually abused [Giuffre] in London at Maxwell's home. During this encounter, Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew forced Plaintiff, a child, to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will."
Andrew, who has not been charged with a crime, has denied Giuffre's allegations and said in a 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, "I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever."