Family of alleged victim of former Prince Andrew speak out

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest isn’t about sex abuse.

But for women who say they were victims of the former prince or those of Jeffrey Epstein, his arrest in England on Thursday for public misconduct is one more sign of vindication.

It comes decades after women first told of the abuse, and after they were dismissed by police and denied and disparaged by the former prince and Epstein. And it follows the release of more of the files that Epstein accusers have pushed for to hold more people – including Bill Gates and Les Wexner – accountable.

“Today is just the beginning of accountability and justice brought forth by Virginia Roberts Giuffre – a young mother who adored her daughter so deeply, she fought the most powerful on earth to protect her. She did this for everyone’s daughters. Let’s now demand all the dominos of power and corruption begin to fall,” Maria Farmer said in a statement.

Farmer reported Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to law enforcement in 1996 for abusing her and her younger sister in New York City. Farmer later reported that Epstein and others abused her in New Mexico and Ohio. Maxwell was later sentenced to prison for sex trafficking. Epstein died by suicide in 2019, awaiting trial on similar allegations.

Roberts Giuffre said she was trafficked to engage in sex with Prince Andrew when she was a teenager and later became one of the most outspoken people reporting they’d been victims of Epstein and Andrew. Her memoir “Nobody’s Girl” was released last October, six months after she died by suicide.

“Today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty,” Roberts Giuffre’s family said in a statement.

“On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their investigation and arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,” her brothers Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson said on Thursday.

“He was never a prince,” they said. “For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.”

Roberts Giuffre settled a civil sex abuse suit against the then-prince in 2022. The terms were confidential. The British royal family denied any wrongdoing by the man who was once second in line to the throne.

It’s been six years since Epstein died by suicide. And hundreds of women who call themselves the Survivor Sisters have pushed to identify Epstein’s associates who abused or raped them, or participated in trafficking them.

Their advocacy led to a near-unanimous vote in the House and Senate to release the Justice Department’s investigative files on Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested Thursday amid allegations of misconduct in public office tied to his relationship with the convicted sex offender. He was released later that day.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents several Epstein accusers, says the state needs to act not just on allegations of financial crimes, but those of rape, child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

When Roberts Giuffre first met Mountbatten-Windsor in March 2001, he was a prince. She was 17.

Epstein and his associate Maxwell introduced them.

“My daughters are just a little younger than you,” he said of his daughters, the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. “I guess we will have to trade her in soon.”

Maxwell had told her that her job was to take care of the now former prince.

Roberts Giuffre said she didn’t want to have sex with the then-prince. “But I felt I had to,” she wrote. “There was no way for me to free myself from Epstein and Maxwell’s grip.”

Laura Trujillo is a national columnist focusing on health and wellness. She is the author of “Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter’s Search for Truth and Renewal” and can be reached at ltrujillo@usatoday.com.