How courageous Virginia Giuffre helped me expose the infamous picture which dragged Prince Andrew into scandal, by means of SHARON CHURCHER

When Virginia Giuffre first produced the dog-eared {photograph} from an envelope, she had little thought of the global furore to come back – that the image would assist unmask a billionaire intercourse predator and drive a prince of the world from public existence.

Or that she can be pushed to take her personal existence amid the shadows of a scandal she feared would drag her down for ever.

Virginia had handiest stored the now-notorious snap as a souvenir of what she nonetheless half-believed have been enviable years as a human intercourse toy.

‘I’m no longer positive that I must be appearing this to you,’ she mentioned once we met in 2011. ‘He’s a British prince.’

Taken in London a decade previous, the {photograph} confirmed Prince Andrew status subsequent to her, one arm skimming her naked waist underneath a cut-off best whilst his good friend Ghislaine Maxwell grinned proprietorially within the background.

Virginia blushed with embarrassment as she recalled this primary stumble upon with Andrew, who used to be then elderly 41.

‘Ghislaine served tea from a porcelain pot,’ she recalled. ‘She asked Andrew how old [he thought] I was. He guessed 17.’ He used to be proper.

I’d met Virginia within the lawn of her modest Australian bungalow beneath the watchful eye of her husband, Robert Giuffre, as she described how this primary stumble upon with Andrew were organized by means of any other of his buddies, American financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms Giuffre claimed she used to be compelled to have intercourse with UK Prince Andrew along with her proof together with a photograph (pictured) of her posing with the royal at Maxwell’s London house

Giuffre’s brother Danny Wilson (left) paid tribute to her on social media by means of posting a photograph of him and his sister

Epstein had employed her as his private ‘sex slave’ after Maxwell noticed her at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Beach, the place Virginia labored as a $9-an-hour converting room assistant.

Virginia served espresso as she recalled how, in March 2001, she were flown to London at the financier’s private jet, the so-called ‘Lolita Express’.

‘I’m telling you issues even my husband didn’t know,’ she mentioned.

Indeed, the expression on Robert’s face modified from surprise to rage as she detailed how Maxwell assigned her a bed room in her Belgravia townhouse and informed her: ‘You’re going to bounce with a prince this night!’

‘She said I needed to be “smiley” and bubbly and very happy to be around him and give a lot of energy to him because he is the Queen’s son,’ Virginia recalled.

For his section, Andrew says he has no recollection of assembly her and has all the time denied wrongdoing.

The picture used to be taken by means of Epstein himself on an inexpensive Kodak digital camera belonging to Virginia – and at her request, she mentioned, as a result of she used to be extremely joyful to be offered to Andrew. She informed me she anticipated the image can be a souvenir, ‘something to show my Mom’.

Her naive rationalization rang true but till the day she died, Virginia persisted a marketing campaign alleging that this image of them in combination concerned virtual trickery, however no credible proof has been produced.

Meanwhile, she used to be bombarded by means of accusations that she used to be a ‘gold-digging prostitute’ who betrayed her circle of relatives when she gave the Mail on Sunday permission to breed the picture in February 2011.

The emotional burden used to be monumental.

Virginia buried her face in her arms as she informed me she used to be nonetheless mortified by means of reminiscences of the sexual encounters for which she used to be paid by means of the hour.

I was hoping her ordeal had in the end ended when Andrew agreed to pay her a agreement reported to be £12million in February 2022 (even though the real determine would possibly neatly be decrease).

Victims of Jeffrey Epstein, from left, Sarah Ransome, Ms Giuffre, and Marijke Chartouni to find give a boost to in every different after having met in August 2019 

She took a sedative, Xanax, to calm her mounting nervousness and ‘forget about what I had to do’ however all too quickly she used to be taking as much as 8 tablets an afternoon

By then, Jeffrey Epstein were discovered lifeless in his New York City jail mobile. Ghislaine Maxwell, high-society daughter of press baron Robert Maxwell, were discovered responsible of intercourse trafficking in December 2021, and sentenced to 20 years.

Perhaps now Virginia may experience what she believed can be a relaxed new existence along with her husband and 3 kids.

She received a farm and a beachfront mansion in Perth, Australia, and turned into a tireless champion for different survivors of kid intercourse abuse. While Andrew denied all legal responsibility, his recognition used to be within the gutter.

He used to be forged out from the Royal Family and stripped of his titles and patronages.

The prince used to be simply one in all the lads with whom Virginia mentioned she used to be ordered to have intercourse, together with married tycoons and politicians who nonetheless function day by day on the earth information.

And so the tension that her revelations placed on her dating with Robert used to be most probably inevitable. Her marriage broke down and she or he used to be locked in a messy battle over their kids, two sons and a daughter, when she took her existence on Friday.

In fresh years, Prince Andrew’s defenders have persevered to assault Virginia and her testimony.

But claims she used to be a fantasist are ridiculous. She didn’t search me out. I discovered her once I started investigating a mysterious lawsuit through which a girl named handiest as ‘Jane Doe 102’ alleged she used to be employed by means of Epstein when she used to be a ‘vulnerable young girl’ and assigned tasks that integrated being ‘sexually exploited’ by means of his male friends, ‘including royalty’.

Eventually, Virginia agreed to waive her anonymity and communicate to me. She defined how Epstein had offered her to his acquaintances as his ‘travelling masseuse’.

‘A lot of it was very glamorous,’ she recalled. ‘Jeffrey bought me jewellery – diamonds were his favourite – and watches and perfume and makeup and wonderful furniture.’

He rented residences for her in Palm Beach, however she continuously stayed at Epstein’s flats and shared a mattress with him after they travelled. He on occasion offered her as their daughter.

‘I felt that he and Ghislaine really cared for me,’ she mentioned. ‘We’d do circle of relatives issues. We’d watch Sex And The City, we’d pop popcorn. Have commonplace dinners. Drink commonplace beverages. But impulsively it [would] finally end up in a huge foursome with Jeffrey and Ghislaine and different women.’ I nonetheless have a duplicate of 24 pages of notes that she stored at the side of the picture.

In her infantile, looped handwriting they file how some males favored her to participate in role-playing, through which she would get dressed as a maid or schoolgirl in knee socks, along with her hair twisted into pigtails.

‘Ghislaine sent me to a dentist to have my teeth whitened and I went for waxes. (Epstein) wanted me to look pre-pubescent,’ she mentioned. ‘I was frightened,’ she mentioned.

‘But I knew I had to oblige every one of his whims. I knew he was someone of great knowledge, great power and influence, and I knew he had to be well-respected. I felt I couldn’t deny him.’

She took a sedative, Xanax, to calm her mounting nervousness and ‘forget about what I had to do’ however all too quickly she used to be taking as much as 8 tablets an afternoon.

As for Prince Andrew, her handwritten manuscript concludes that she blamed just one individual for permitting ‘J E and Ghislaine’ to show her right into a ‘little disposable play toy’ for ‘a royal’.

And that individual used to be Virginia herself – a heart-breakingly false verdict she has now taken to the grave.