Epstein Survivor Injured in Road Incident

Author’s note: This piece contains potentially disturbing content including sex trafficking, the sexual abuse of children, grooming, coercion, and suicide. Reader discretion is advised. 

Virginia Giuffre, a victim of the late billionaire sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, has allegedly been hospitalized after a school bus collided with her car this past Sunday. In an Instagram post, she claimed that the accident sent her into kidney and renal failure, and that the doctors estimated she only had four days to live. It is unclear where the accident happened, but Giuffre is believed to live in Australia with her husband and three children. Virginia Giuffre came from a troubled background, rife with abuse and bouncing between foster homes. At the age of 17, she was working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago where she met Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell offered her a job as a personal masseuse for Epstein, assuring that no experience was necessary. When she arrived at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, he was lying naked on the massage table. Soon, the couple began grooming her into providing sexual services. She traveled with the pair from his Palm Beach home to Manhattan, New Mexico, and the now infamous Little St. James Island. Over a two-and-a-half year period, Giuffre was sexually abused by both Epstein and a number of his business associates. She recounted being “passed around like a platter of fruit”. She is one of at least 150 underage girls thought to have been groomed and abused by the couple. 

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In 2002, Giuffre flew to Thailand to attend a massage school and pick up a Thai girl for Epstein and Maxwell. It was there that she met Robert Giuffre, an Australian martial arts trainer. The couple quickly married, and she informed Epstein that she would not be returning. The Giuffres moved to Australia and began growing their family. They led an idyllic suburban life until she received a series of phone calls–one from Maxwell, another from Epstein, and one from an FBI agent who claimed that she had been identified as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein in an investigation. Giuffre was informed that in March 2005, the Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein after a 14-year-old girl described being brought by a classmate to Epstein’s mansion to give him a massage. Upon arrival, he molested her. The police soon uncovered that this was a recurring pattern. After corroboration with his household staff, a search warrant for his mansion was obtained. Content with family life and ready to put the past behind her, Giuffre avoided talking to the FBI until approached by the Australian police, six months after the phone call. Photos, records, and witnesses by the FBI all confirmed her testimony. 

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Virginia Giuffre publicly spoke about her abuse in 2010. She later started a nonprofit called Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), that supported victims of sex trafficking. She spent much of her adult life advocating tirelessly for survivors. The first criminal case against Epstein resulted in a non-prosecution agreement. In 2019, he was arrested again and sentenced to time in prison. Giuffre testified at his trial asserting: “The reckoning must not end. It must continue. He did not act alone. We the victims know that.” Before revealing any co-conspirators, Epstein died in his prison cell. It was ruled a suicide. Not a single one of his co-conspirators has been prosecuted. 

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A spokesperson for Giuffre released a statement reading: “Virginia has been in a serious accident and is receiving medical care in the hospital. She greatly appreciates the support and well wishes people are sending.” Virginia Giuffre is an example of resilience, courage, and compassion.

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Photo by Michael Förtsch on Unsplash