[imagesource: William Farrington]

Yesterday’s news that Prince Andrew had settled out of court with Virginia Roberts Giuffre will be seen as a victory of sorts for those who were subjected to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse.

This basically shuts the door on the Duke of York ever serving time for his alleged crimes but the reputational damage has been severe.

Epstein victim Sarah Ransome, who was raised in South Africa, has been outspoken about the abuse she suffered at the hands of the paedophile and the network of people who helped him do so.

In the documentary, Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile,  Ransome said Ghislaine Maxwell was worse than Epstein because “she broke the sisterhood, broke the bond, she was supposed to be protector and nurturer”.

Ransome alleged in 2017 that Maxwell coerced her into providing sexual massages to Epstein and that both threatened to physically harm her if she didn’t give in to their demands.

In 2018,  she settled a lawsuit with Epstein and Maxwell.

She has also spoken about how she was lured to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, most notably on The View.

The interview below actually took place late last year but it’s worth revisiting:

Ransome was promoting her book, Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back.

The Washington Post has pulled out a few quotes:

Ransome [says] Maxwell, now on trial on charges of sex trafficking, is as responsible as Epstein was in operating a “rape pyramid scheme for twenty-plus years.” She calls Maxwell “an aristocratic pimp” and “the lead orchestrator of the vast and venomous scheme.”

…She elaborates, saying that she visited Epstein’s private Caribbean compound, what she deems “Pedophile Island,” around 10 times and claims that his requests for “massages” there inevitably resulted in rape. She also was a frequent guest at his Upper East Side mansion, which sold for $51 million this year; it was the scene of what Ransome alleges was “my usual once-a-day rape.”

She has said repeatedly that one of her biggest regrets is that she’ll never get her day in court, and that “my book is my day in court”.

Speaking after Prince Andrew’s settlement news went public, Robert Lewis, a New York-based lawyer for Ransome, called it “another banner day for the survivors”.

[source:washpost]