Humble Versus High and Mighty -- Sacrificing Truth to Immateriality

"He's going to keep denying that it ever happened. But he knows the truth and I know the truth."
"I was so young. Ghislaine woke me up in the morning and said, 'You're gonna meet a prince today.' I didn't know at that point that I was going to be trafficked to that prince."
"Ghislaine said, 'He's coming back to the house and I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein. I couldn't believe it."
"He wasn't rude or anything about it. He said, you know, 'Thank you,' and some kind of soft sentiments like that, and left. I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that even royalty were involved."
"Unfortunately there's this horrible law called statute of limitations. My lawyers said the way to get Ghislaine held accountable, the way to get Epstein held accountable, is through them calling me a liar, which I'm not. It's called a defamation suit."
"[The Duke] knows what he has done."
Virginia Roberts Giuffre

The teenager with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell at her London home in 2001 Credit: Virginia Robert

"It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation."
Buckingham Palace

He stands accused. He denies having anything whatever to do with the sordid affair. Yes, Jeffrey Epstein was his friend, but he had no idea that the man was a pedophile, a sex abuser, a rapist and a thoroughly despicable sexual deviant. Virginia Roberts Guiffre had been Epstein's possession when she was 17 years of age. At age 36, the details of her earlier life behind her, she seeks justice. She and another five accusers feel they are owed something for the ordeals they underwent as young girls emerging into womanhood when the prime predator of young girls trafficked them to select 'friends'.

The now-adult Guiffre feels she is owed some compensation, from an admission and an apology to begin with, and additional terms of solace to be determined at some future time. And because the Duke of York sexually abused her as a teenager, and he strenuously denies any such besmirching of his royal persona, she is willing to go to court, should he in self-defence call a defamation suit to disprove her accusations and clear his name.

Obviously, her recollection, her experience and her life was impacted to a deleterious result, viewed as an object to be used and abused. Her memory is of first meeting the Duke in 2001 in London at the home of Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell; well-connected and wealthy, at a time when Guiffre was all of 17 years of underage. The photograph of the Duke with his arm around Guiffre's waist reflects that first meeting. But of course it is all an illusion. The photograph itself clearly doesn't exist.

She was directed to please the Duke, as a plaything, in a manner she had been groomed for in service to the man known to have sex-trafficked dozens of underage girls. A court unsealed documents relevant to a 2015 defamation suit that Giuffre had filed against Maxwell, revealing that she played a key role in the procurement of young girls for her very good friend Epstein. Denials come readily and easily, and this case was no different. The word of an unknown woman against that of a socialite?

In 2011 Guiffre had initially released her allegations in a British tabloid, revealing that Epstein had used her as a sex slave to be tendered as a favour to wealthy and famous friends and acquaintances. The Duke of York was one of those celebrated friends so favoured, and evidently felt no hesitation about accepting that favour. But of course that is Guiffre's recollection, her history, her life, not that of the Duke's, whose recollection is completely other.

The judge hearing the case in 2015 appeared not to hesitate either, when he struck down the allegations proffered against the Royal personage, describing them as "immaterial and impertinent". And so, the Duke of York is now considering legal action. And Guiffre is speaking out to any media site that is interested -- and many are -- to emphasize that her memory which fails to accord with the Duke's, is the correct one reflecting reality. So sue me, she says.