One of Jeffrey Epstein’s most vocal accusers has stepped out after revealing she is ‘deeply pleased’ by the billionaire’s arrest on sex trafficking charges.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre flashed a smile for photographers on Friday as she shopped for groceries in Cairns, Australia.
Guiffre, 35, alleges she spent several years as one of Epstein’s teenage sex slaves before she managed to break away from the billionaire and relocate Down Under.
Now married with three children, Guiffre lives a decidedly private life, but was back in the spotlight earlier this week to issue a statement regarding 66-year-old Epstein’s arrest.
‘I can say, without hesitation, that I am deeply pleased that federal prosecutors in New York have arrested Jeffrey Epstein and are on the case in a serious way,’ she said.
‘It is time for Jeffrey Epstein and those who participated and enabled his sex crimes to be brought to true justice.’.
Appearing thrilled that the financier could be spending 40 years behind bars for his alleged crimes, Guiffre couldn’t stop smiling as she wheeled a cart full of supplies to her car.
Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre flashed a smile for photographers on Friday as she shopped for groceries in Cairns, Australia
The 35-year-old appeared thrilled that Epstein could be spending 40 years behind bars for his alleged crimes
Epstein, 66, is pictured in his mugshot taken late last week
Guiffre was 15 years old and working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when she says she met Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited her to be a ‘masseuse’ for the financier.
Guiffre claims she was soon lured into a world of ‘depravity and sexual abuse’ where she was groomed for sex with Epstein.
‘You’re just thrown into a world you don’t understand, and you’re screaming on the inside and you don’t know how to let it come out,’ she told The Miami Herald
‘You just become this numb figure who refuses to speak, who refuses to feel… all you do is obey’.
In court documents filed in Florida back in 2015, Guiffre asserted she had sex with Epstein’s famous friends, Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz.
Both the lawyer and the Royal have strenuously denied the allegations.
A judge later struck Guiffre’s affidavit from the court record/
In court documents filed in Florida back in 2015, Guiffre asserted she had sex with Epstein’s famous friend, Prince Andrew. He has strenuously denied the claim. The pair are pictured together in 2001
Guiffre couldn’t stop smiling as she wheeled a cart full of supplies to her car on Friday
After years as Epstein’s alleged sex slave, Guiffre managed to break free from the billionaire’s circle and relocate to Australia. She is pictured in the country on Friday
Guiffre also says she spent time on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
‘It’s very private. It’s the perfect world for a billionaire getting away with what he was doing. He could hold big parties there, and have hue orgies there and no one would know what was going on, because it was so quiet and so protected’ Guiffre explained.
In 2003, at the age of 19, Guiffre says Epstein lost interest in her because she ‘was too old for him’.
During a trip to Thailand that year, which was funded by the billionaire, Guiffre met an Australian man and fell in love.
She soon relocated to Australia.
Guiffre was 15 years old and working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when she says she met Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who recruited her to be a ‘masseuse’ for the financier
‘I can say, without hesitation, that I am deeply pleased that federal prosecutors in New York have arrested Jeffrey Epstein’,’ Guiffre said in a statement earlier this week
Giuffr is pictured holding a photo of her when she was 16 in a recent interview with The Miami Herald
Meanwhile, Epstein was arrested on Saturday after his private plane landed in New Jersey after a flight from Paris.
He appeared in a New York court on Monday dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit and entered not guilty pleas to counts of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors.
An indictment alleges that Epstein, from 2002 through 2005,, sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money.
His victims were as young as 14, according to prosecutors.
Epstein allegedly worked with several employees and associates ‘to ensure that he had a steady supply of minor victims to abuse, and paid several of those victims themselves to recruit other underage girls to engage in similar sex acts for money’.
He faces more than 40 years in prison if convicted.
Epstein also faced a lengthy prison sentence amid similar allegations in Florida in 2007 but managed to strike a lenient deal allowing him to plead guilty to two state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
He was given 13 months in Palm Beach County jail, but spent up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, on work release outside of jail.
Epstein is pictured with his accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell (above in 2005), whom Guiffre claims she met at Mar-a-Lago