In the future, when the full story of the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking ring is finally told in all its sordid magnitude, I believe one name will shine brighter than all others: Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
In my book she is a heroine, from victim to avenger, and now – having to battle to prove her innocence.
the ‘trifecta’ of settlements, against Epstein, against Ghislaine Maxwell and against Prince Andrew.
Without her relentless fight, it is highly unlikely that names like the three above (and others such as the late model agent – and alleged serial rapist – Jean Luc Brunel), would ever have faced any kind of scrutiny or retribution.
While she had to drop her Dershowitz suit, and as I understand her health is (or was) fragile, she still looms high in this planetary fight against pedophiles and sex traffickers.
But nothing is simple in this life. And certainly not for sex trafficking victims.
I’ve written about the ‘the dark satanic mills, that manufacture hell on earth’, to use a verse from a song.
Consider this: victims of sex trafficking are usually sent by their abusers on the road to become abusers themselves, feeding the self-replicating hellish cycle.
It’s known from legal filings that Virginia Roberts met her husband in Bangkok, and fled to Australia to build a life and a family with him.
What is also known is that Virginia was in Thailand with a double mission – she was to take courses in massage, and also – that’s a crucial point – to ‘find nice girls to send to Jeffrey’.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre fled Epstein’s orbit just as she was about to engage in international sex-trafficking.
A secondary tragedy, almost as bad as the primary tragedy of sex trafficked and raped girls: the victims are turned into new culprits.
So it warmed my hear a lot to hear of the latest news.
Giuffre has won a two-year lawsuit brought by a ‘fellow survivor’ of Epstein that required her to relive her trauma during deposition, discovery, and grueling casework.
It all ended in a precedent-setting win at the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
Newsweek reported:
Giuffre’s lawyer, Jill Roth: “‘It’s been beyond difficult’, she said. ‘No one’s harder at work than Virginia, because when you are a party in a lawsuit, you are really being thrust into multiple situations where you have to revisit your trauma and discuss your trauma… […] Being a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and then having to unnecessarily recount all of that as you’re continuing to try to move forward in your life is really beyond what’s fair and it’s really beyond what anybody can be expected to handle and to carry’.”
Rino Oh, who is an alleged Epstein victim, sued Giuffre for libel back in 2021, over content she posted on X describing her as Epstein’s girlfriend.
“The $10 million Oh case blew up into a bigger lawsuit, however, involving claims and counterclaims in which both women alleged the other had sexually assaulted them and was not a victim but a co-conspirator of Epstein. Both also denied the other’s allegations.”
Giuffre ended up applying to the New York Supreme Court in a bid to have the case thrown out. Her lawyers used a new law from 2021.
The piece of legislation is designed to ‘protect sex trafficking victims from being sued for acts they were forced to perform’ by their abusers.
“‘It has been undoubtedly difficult for Virginia’, Roth said, ‘who is constantly striving to regain peace and balance and control in her life.”
Giuffre achieved a a key win – for the first time the START Act was applied to protect survivors in a civil – and not criminal – case.
Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in his decision that Giuffre ‘is undisputedly the victim of Epstein’s sex trafficking’ and also that Oh’s counterclaims ‘clearly state that Epstein was in the room for the alleged incident’.
“‘As such, under the START Act, plaintiff could not be guilty under the penal law of what defendant alleges. Therefore, the motion to dismiss the counterclaims must be granted. […] For this Court to hold otherwise and to find that [Giuffre], a victim herself, was capable of being liable for the crimes alleged by defendant, would be contrary not only to the plain language of the statutes, but to the spirit and legislative intent of the START Act.”
So the Judge upheld the Giuffre motion and dismissed the the counterclaims by Rino Oh, who intends to appeal.
Read more about it: