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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Rebecca Koncienzcy

BBC Panorama viewers left 'sickened' by Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre's claims

BBC viewers have been left "sickened" by claims against Prince Andrew by Virginia Giuffre.

Virginia gave her first UK interview with Panorama, recounting the time she claims Prince Andrew slept with her.

Prince Andrew was a longtime friend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, making regular visits to his home.

It was through this friendship that Virginia says she met the prince and in 2001 was forced to sleep with him.

Virginia claims Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's girlfriend and the woman who introduced Epstien to the Duke of York, told her "she would have to do for Andrew what she does for Epstein."

Prince Andrew interviewed by Emily Maitlis. (BBC)

It was after this that the photo of Virginia and Prince Andrew was taken, something Prince Andrew does not recall and then carried out instructions to entertain the prince.

She said: "It didn't last very long, it was disgusting, he got up and walked out.

"Ghislaine pats me on the back and tells me 'you made him really happy'. It was a wicked time in my life, a really scary time in my life.

"Yeah, I wasn't chained to a sink but these powerful people were my chains, I didn't know what was going to happen."

The shocking claims about Prince Andrew and his friend Epstein angered viewers at home as they heard Epstein would look for "teenage, slim, young girls with small breasts" to give men naked massages at his Palm Beach mansion for $300.

Many of the victims came from troubled backgrounds, such as Virginia.

She said she was abused as a little girl and mentally scarred, and in a bid to escape life on the streets, when Maxwell offered her the chance to train as a massage therapist at the age of just 17 she thought it was a turning point.

Speaking about her 'interview' to be a massage therapist, Virginia said: "There is a naked guy [Epstein] laying on a table in the middle of the room.

"She [Maxwell] says here is lotions and oils and always keep your hands on him.

"They seemed like nice people so I trusted them. So I told them I had had a really hard life, I had been a runaway, abused.

"But that was like a gift for them.

"They told me to take my clothes off and she takes her clothes off, Epstein is already naked, and they start touching me and ask me to do things for him and I did and fell right into that circle.

"It was a face of reality that I succumbed to, it was all I had known, so I let them abuse me."

Maxwell has said that Virginia is a liar.

Prince Andrew was a regular visitor at Epstein's homes and a housekeeper says he spent weeks with them and had daily massages.

Prince Andrew did not answer the BBC question about massages but says he never saw anything suspicious at Epstein's homes.

He close relationship with Epstein continued after the sex offender was released from prison in 2010, Prince Andrew even visited his 'welcome home party'.

Prince Andrew completely denies the accusations and says he has no recollection of meeting Virginia Roberts.

But, Virginia, now a married mum-of-three, who gave the interview to BBC Panorama before Prince Andrew's interview with Emily Matlis, says she stands by her words, adding: "Only one of us is telling the truth, and that's me".

People watching the documentary at home took to Twitter to vent their anger at the claims.

One, @Autumns_Mummy said: " Watching #Panorama is making me feel physically sick."

Another, @aChildOf2Worlds said: "I feel sick."

A third, @JamesT_1976 said: " 10 minutes in and I feel sick."

A fourth @Beeee_20 added: " I feel sick to my stomach."

*You can watch the Panorama documentary in full on the BBC iPlayer

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