‘I know she’s telling the truth and Prince Andrew should pay for it,’ says father of sex-abuse accuser
THE father of Prince Andrew’s accuser has said he knows she is telling the truth.
The British royal is facing fresh scrutiny after Virginia Giuffre’s first UK television interview was aired as part of a BBC ‘Panorama’ investigation into his association with convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ms Giuffre claims she was trafficked to London as a teenager by Epstein and forced to sleep with the prince, which he categorically denies.
“One thing that I can tell you is you never forget the face of someone who has heaved over you,” she said as she spoke of being left “horrified and ashamed” after the alleged encounter in 2001 – a date the prince claims he spent in a Pizza Express in Woking.
She claimed she danced with the prince, Queen Elizabeth’s third child, in Tramp nightclub, adding he was “the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life” and “his sweat was... raining basically everywhere”.
Yesterday, her father, Sky Roberts, told ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’: “I know she’s telling the truth. My daughter is, she’s a good girl, she really is.
“I feel really sorry that all this happened, but it did happen and Prince Andrew should pay for it.”
Mr Roberts expressed his support for Ms Giuffre.
“At the time she was going through it, I had no idea. I love my daughter very much. She’s really brave to be going through all this and to come up against these powerful people,” he said.
Lisa Bloom, a lawyer for some of Epstein’s victims, revealed that she is representing somebody who alleges being at the same club at the same time.
“I’m letting you know now, for the first time really, publicly, that I am representing a witness who says she was there that night in 2001,” Ms Bloom told ITV’s ‘This Morning’.
“She saw Prince Andrew with Virginia, she remembers it vividly because she was told, ‘This is a member of the royal family’.
“It was a very big thing for her. She was shocked and she saw Virginia there with him and so I’m going to take her to the FBI, they can investigate her claims, and I call on other witnesses to come forward.”
In a message to the prince, Ms Bloom said: “Let’s put those words into action, Prince Andrew. You’ve said that you’re going to co-operate, let’s do it. Don’t make us subpoena you. Don’t make law enforcement chase you around.
“Come to the US, sit down with the FBI and with victims’ attorneys like myself and answer questions.”
But friends of the prince believe he was treated harshly by the BBC.
A source told the ‘Daily Telegraph’: “I don’t think he has been given a fair trial.
“She wasn’t cross-examined on any of the details. She was allowed to say what she wanted and cry a lot.”
The royal family was out in force at Buckingham Palace yesterday, at a reception hosted by the queen for Nato leaders, including US President Donald Trump.
However, Andrew was missing, having quit public life in the wake of a disastrous interview in which he sought to address Ms Giuffre’s claims.
About about the controversy during his visit to London yesterday, Mr Trump said: “I don’t know Prince Andrew, but that’s a tough story, it’s a very tough story.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts.”
‘She was allowed to say what she wanted and cry a lot’