Virginia Giuffre died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia on Friday, her publicist confirmed.
“Deeply loving, smart and humorous, she was a beacon to different survivors and victims,” publicist Dini von Mueffling mentioned in an announcement.
“She adored her youngsters and lots of animals. She was all the time extra involved with me than with herself. I’ll miss her past phrases. It was the privilege of a lifetime to characterize her.”
The American-born Giuffre, who lived in Australia for years, grew to become an advocate for intercourse trafficking survivors after rising as a central determine in Epstein’s extended downfall.
The rich, well-connected New York cash supervisor killed himself in August 2019 whereas awaiting trial on US federal intercourse trafficking costs involving dozens of teenage ladies and younger ladies, some as younger as 14.
The fees got here 14 years after police in Palm Seaside, Florida, first started investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage ladies who had been employed to provide him massages.
Giuffre got here ahead publicly after the preliminary investigation led to an 18-month Florida jail time period for Epstein, who made a secret deal to keep away from federal prosecution by pleading responsible as a substitute to comparatively minor state-level costs of soliciting prostitution. He was launched in 2009.
In subsequent lawsuits, Giuffre mentioned she was a teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago — US President Donald Trump’s Palm Seaside membership — when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein’s girlfriend and later worker, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Giuffre mentioned Maxwell employed her as a masseuse for Epstein, however the couple successfully made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not solely Epstein however his buddies and associates.
Giuffre she was flown world wide for assignations with males together with Prince Andrew when she was aged solely 17 and 18.
The boys denied it and assailed Giuffre’s credibility. She acknowledged altering some key particulars of her account, together with the age at which she first met Epstein.
However many elements of her story had been supported by paperwork, witness testimony and images — together with one in all her and Andrew, along with his arm round her naked midriff, in Maxwell’s London townhouse.
Giuffre mentioned in one in all her lawsuits that she had intercourse with the royal 3 times: in London throughout her 2001 journey, at Epstein’s New York mansion when she was 17 and within the Virgin Islands when she was 18.
Epstein’s suicide in 2019 put an finish to her hopes of holding him criminally accountable. She based an advocacy charity, SOAR, in 2015.
Sigrid McCawley, an legal professional for Giuffre, mentioned in an announcement on Friday, “Her braveness pushed me to battle tougher, and her power was awe-inspiring. The world has misplaced an incredible human being in the present day. Relaxation in peace, my candy angel.”
