Prince Andrew and the 17-year-old girl his sex offender friend flew to Britain to meet him



Virginia Roberts reveals she is 'Jane Doe 102' in Jeffrey Epstein case

Mother-of-three spent four years as millionaire's personal masseuse



She describes being flown across world to meet Prince Andrew

Epstein trained her 'as a prostitute for him and his friends'

As the UK's special representative for international trade, the Duke of York holds an important position, requiring sound judgement and widespread respect.

But those qualities have been thrown into question since photographs of Prince Andrew with his billionaire financier friend Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child-sex offender who was jailed for 18 months for soliciting underage prostitutes, appeared last weekend.

Today, however, even more serious doubts are cast on his suitability after a woman at the centre of the Epstein case revealed to The Mail on Sunday that she had, as a 17-year-old employed by Epstein, been flown across the world to be introduced to the Prince.



First meeting: Prince Andrew puts his arms around 17-year-old Virginia, centre

On one of those occasions Virginia Roberts was subsequently paid $15,000 (£9,400). Her shocking account of her four years as Epstein’s personal masseuse is supported by court documents, an eyewitness, photographs and flight details of Epstein’s private jets.



One picture, said to have been taken by Epstein during Andrew’s first encounter with the girl in March 2001 and published today by The Mail on Sunday, shows the Prince with his arm around her waist.



This is not the first time the Duke of York’s judgment and choice of associates have been questioned. He appears to relish the company of super-rich oil billionaires from the Middle East, North Africa and the former Soviet Union.



The peculiar sale of his former marital home to a Kazakh businessman for £15 million after it had languished unsold for five years at £12 million has never been satisfactorily explained.



In the recent leak of American diplomatic cables it was revealed that he had criticised an official corruption investigation into the huge Al-Yamamah arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia, while he is also said to be close to Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the beleaguered Libyan president, and may have had a role in the early release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.



While on the streets, I slept with men for money. I was a paedophile's dream

But it is Andrew’s friendship with Epstein, whom he has known since at least 2000, and with Epstein’s confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late disgraced newspaper baron Robert Maxwell, that gives most concern.



He was first seen with the pair on holiday in Thailand, and was pictured cavorting with Ghislaine at a Halloween fetishthemed party in Manhattan.



The photograph that appeared last weekend shows the prince strolling through Central Park with 58-year-old Epstein. Andrew was said to have spent four days at his New York mansion in December, when he was joined by other distinguished guests, including Woody Allen, at a dinner.



It is by no means the first New York soiree Andrew has attended as Epstein’s guest.



A lengthy profile of the financier in Vanity Fair magazine some years ago reported that Andrew was a guest at a cocktail party thrown by Epstein and Maxwell packed with young Russian models. ‘Some guests were horrified,’ said the article’s author, Vicky Ward.

It should not be forgotten that Epstein is a registered sex offender after recently completing his sentence for offences relating to child prostitution.



However, he avoided trial on more serious charges that carried a potential life sentence. And no one reading The Mail on Sunday’s interview with the woman who was prepared to testify against him can be in any doubt of the seriousness of the charges.



Epstein, a Wall Street money manager who once counted Bill Clinton and Donald Trump among his friends, became the subject of an undercover investigation in 2005 after the stepmother of a 14-year old girl claimed she was paid $200 (£125) to give him an ‘erotic massage’.



The subsequent FBI probe uncovered at least 20 girls levelling sexual allegations against him. Eventually, Epstein struck a ‘plea bargain’ with prosecutors – a practice not permitted under British law – under which he was allowed to plead guilty to two relatively minor charges.



Police claim that his donations to politicians and his ‘dream team’ of influential lawyers deterred prosecutors from bringing more serious charges of sex-trafficking. The deal certainly kept the names of a lot of Epstein’s famous friends out of an embarrassing court case.



However, an unusual part of the agreement was that Epstein’s alleged victims were allowed to bring civil proceedings against him.



He has so far made 17 out-of-court settlements, and some cases are ongoing. One of these girls was to have been a key witness for the prosecution had the case gone to trial. She was just 15 years old when she was drawn into Epstein’s exploitative world in 1998.



In her civil writ against him, under the pseudonym Jane Doe 102’ she alleged that her duties included being ‘sexually exploited by Epstein’s adult male peers including royalty’.



A new life: Virgina, now a mother-of-three, in Australia

Now, horrified by the evidence of Epstein and Andrew enjoying each other’s company in New York, Jane Doe 102 has agreed to waive her anonymity and tell for the first time her deeply disturbing story.



Her real name is Virginia Roberts and she now lives in Australia, where she is a happily married mother of three.



Over the course of a week during which she spoke at length to The Mail on Sunday, she appeared sometimes vulnerable, and sometimes steely, but always quietly resolute and consistent.



Revisiting events from a past that she had hoped she had left behind,Virginia occasionally buried her face in her hands.



Some recollections – and, for reasons of taste, not all the details can be included here – caused her to flush with shame. ‘I’m telling you things that even my husband didn’t know,’ she said.



Virginia, who has undergone counselling to try to come to terms with her past, is honest about her initiation into Epstein’s depraved world.



She was a troubled teenager, whose slender figure, delicate complexion, hesitant voice and soulful blue eyes made her look young for her years.



Born in Sacramento, California, in August 1983, Virginia spent her early years on a small ranch on the West Coast of America.



This seemingly idyllic childhood ended when she was sexually molested by a man close to her family.



The fallout from that led to her parents temporarily splitting up. Blaming herself, Virginia began to get into trouble Aged 11, she was sent to live with an aunt but repeatedly ran away.



Living on the streets, she was beaten up and slept with at least two older men in return for food. ‘I was a paedophile’s dream,’ she says.



Three years later, she was reunited with her family and started a new life with her father who had moved to Palm Beach,

Florida, where he was maintenance manager at Donald Trump’s country club, Mar-a-Lago.



Virginia got a part-time job as a changing room assistant –which is where, soon after her 15th birthday, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, who invited her to work as Epstein’s personal masseuse.



‘I was wearing my uniform – a white miniskirt and a skin-tight white polo top – when I was approached by Ghislaine,’ Virginia says.



‘I told her I wanted to become a masseuse and she said she worked for a very wealthy gentleman who was looking for a travelling masseuse.



I’d get training and be paid well.’Virginia’s father gave his blessing, believing his daughter was being handed the opportunity to learn a skill and to work for a wealthy and respectable employer.



He drove her to Epstein’s pink mansion on the Palm Beach waterfront – he also owns a nine-storey home in New York, the city’s biggest private residence; a 7,500-acre ranch called ‘Zorro’ in New Mexico and Little Saint James, a private 70- acre atoll in the US Virgin Islands.

Virginia says: ‘Ghislaine said I was to start immediately and that someone would drive me home.



My father left and I was told to go upstairs.’ She was led by another woman through Epstein’s bedroom into a massage room where he lay face down naked on a table.



He started to interviewed Virginia. This was unconventional, but Virginia had no suspicions. Presumably, she thought, this was how the wealthy conducted their business.



Epstein elicited the information that Virginia had been a runaway, and was no longer a virgin.



Virginia was then told to start massaging Epstein, under the instructions of the woman who had shown her in. The massage quickly developed into a sexual encounter.



Virginia was uncomfortable, but reluctant to deny such important people. ‘My face was red with embarrassment,’ she says. ‘But I felt under immense pressure to please them.



The whole time it was going on, they were promising me the world, that I’d travel with Jeffrey on his private jet and have a well-paid profession.’ Afterwards, she was given two $100 bills and told to return the next day.



That was the beginning of the four years she spent with Epstein.



For three of those years, she was under Florida’s age of consent, which is 18.



Troubled teenager: Virginia on the billionaire's Zorro ranch in New Mexico in 2001

Virginia was fascinated by his life story: the son of a humble New York City parks worker, he was a teacher before becoming a Wall Street broker and friends with the upper echelons of the political, financial and academic establishment.



As a confused teenager, Virginia easily fell into the practice of sexually gratifying him for money.



He guaranteed her a minimum of $200 each time she gave him what he called an ‘erotic massage.’



Virginia said: ‘I would always receive the money immediately. He would give me the cash from a wad he carried in a black duffel bag or an assistant paid me.

’And, because of the way Epstein had warped her sensibilities, every time she took the cash, Virginia felt even more indebted to him. Secretly, he was also preparing her for an even more disturbing role.



Epstein had trained me to do whatever men wanted. I told myself I was special

‘Basically, I was training to be a prostitute for him and his friends who shared his interest in young girls,’ she says: ‘After about two years, he started to ask me to “entertain” his friends.’

It started when Epstein called Virginia at the Palm Beach apartment he had rented for her.



She recalls: ‘He said, “I’ve got a good friend and I need you to fly to the island to

entertain him, massage him and make him feel how you make me feel.”



He didn’t spell out what I had to do. He didn’t have to. ‘He’d trained me to do whatever a man wanted. I was shocked but I told myself he was sharing me around because he trusted me and I was special.



I was worried, but I would do anything to keep Jeffrey happy and to keep my place as his number one girl.



He would keep telling me how lucky I was with the life I was leading and the money I was making. It was easy to fall into his grasp.

‘The way it usually worked was I’d be sent to meet a man on the private island Jeffrey owned in the Caribbean, or at his ranch in New Mexico, which was really isolated.’ She was ‘given’ to men ranging in age from their 40s to their 60s.



They included a well-known businessman (whose pregnant wife was asleep in the next room), a world-renowned scientist, a respected liberal politician and a foreign head of state.

None appeared to think the arrangement was unusual. Virginia says there were many other girls in Epstein’s circle and that she was paid extra money to help recruit them.



Counselling: Virginia at her mother's home at Palm Beach in 1998

‘They would lounge around the Palm Beach house, the ranch or the island, nude or topless,’ she says. ‘But I was one of the very few he trusted as “special” and chosen to “entertain” his friends.’

Virginia took the sedative Xanax to detach herself from sordid reality. ‘It was an escape drug,’ she says. ‘It made me calm and helped me forget about what I had to do. I was up to eight pills a day.’



Epstein had no objection to Virginia’s use of prescription drugs, no doubt recognising that they made her even more malleable. ‘I didn’t want to go back to the life I’d had before’ she says.



‘That made me totally obedient.’ Despite the fact that Epstein was, essentially, her pimp, this life now seemed normal to Virginia. ‘I felt that he and Ghislaine really cared for me,’ she said.



‘We’d do family things, like watch Sex And The City and eat popcorn. ‘A lot of it was very glamorous. I met famous friends of his such as Al Gore and Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell. He introduced me as his “travelling masseuse.”



Some people mistook me for his daughter. ‘When we were in New York or Palm Beach, Ghislaine and I would shop all day.



Jeffrey bought me jewellery – diamonds were his favourite – and wonderful furniture. He was paying me very well because I’d give him sex whenever he wanted it.’



She was, she says, delighted when Epstein invited her to accompany him on a six-week trip in 2001.



‘He said we’d be going to Europe and North Africa to meet architects and interior decorators because he wanted to redo his New Mexico house.



I threw my arms around him and gave him a peck on the cheek.’ They flew to Paris, then Spain, then Tangier.



Finally, they went to London. ‘After we landed, we drove straight to Ghislaine’s house,’ says Virginia. ‘I was given a small upstairs bedroom. The following morning, Ghislaine came in.



She was chirpy and jumped on the bed saying, “Get up, sleepyhead. You’ve got a big day. We’ve got to go shopping. You need a dress as you’re going to dance with a Prince tonight.”



‘She said I needed to be “smiley” and bubbly because he was the Queen’s son.



Ghislaine and I went to Burberry, where she bought me a £5,000 bag, and to a few other designer stores where we bought a couple of dresses, a pair of embroidered jeans and a pink singlet, perfume and make-up.



We got back to Ghislaine’s house at around 4pm and I ran straight upstairs to shower and dress.



When I went downstairs, Ghislaine and Jeffrey were in the lounge. There was a knock at the door. Ghislaine led Andrew in and we kissed each other on the cheek. ‘Ghislaine served tea from a porcelain pot and biscuits. She knew Sarah Ferguson and they talked fondly about Andrew’s daughters.



Then Ghislaine asked Andrew how old he thought I was and he guessed 17 and they all laughed. Ghislaine made a joke that I was getting too old for Jeffrey.



She said, “He’ll soon have to trade her in.” It was widely known that he liked young girls.’ The four of them went out to dinner and on to Tramp nightclub where, she says, Andrew danced with her.



‘After about an hour-and-a-half, we drove back to Ghislaine’s.



All of us went upstairs and I asked Jeffrey to snap a picture of me with the Prince. I wanted something to show my Mom. Ghislaine and Jeffrey left us after that, and later Andrew left.



‘In the morning, Ghislaine said, “You did well. He had fun”. We flew straight back to the States.’ The Mail on Sunday has confirmed that the tycoon’s jet flew to Paris on March 6, 2001, continuing to Granada, Tangier and London, before returning to New York.



On the last leg of the trip, Virginia was paid about $15,000 (£9,400) by Epstein. ‘It was amazing money, more than I’d ever made on a trip with him before.

He didn’t say there was any special reason, but I felt like I’d done everything he wanted. He was very pleased.’



I took eight pills a day to help me forget what I had to do. It made me calm.

There is no suggestion that there was any sexual contact between Virginia and Andrew, or that Andrew knew that Epstein paid her to have sex with his friends.



However, the Prince must have been aware of Epstein’s conviction when he stayed with him in New York in December.



Virginia says she met Andrew for a second time around Easter 2001 at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion.



‘When I got to the mansion, I was told, “Get ready. You are meeting someone in the office” – which is what they called the library. Andrew was sitting there in a big leather armchair.



Ghislaine had just given him a present, a big toy that was his Spitting Image puppet. ‘He was smiling ear-to-ear. He looked like a kid whose parents were taking him to Disney World.



A beautiful girl called Johanna Sjoberg who worked for Jeffrey was sitting on Andrew’s knee. Ghislaine guided me over to Andrew and I think he recognised me, though I don’t know if he remembered my name.



Organiser: Ghislaine Maxwell looks on as Andrew put his arm around Virginia. Robert Maxwell's daughter invited her to work as Epstein's personal masseuse soon after her 15th birthday

We kissed on the cheek and Ghislaine placed me on his other knee.’ Johanna spoke to The Mail on Sunday three years ago about this incident, which took place when she was 21.



She said: ‘Ghislaine put the puppet’s hand on Virginia’s breast, then Andrew put his hand on my breast. It was a great joke. Everybody laughed.’ After this, Virginia was paid, by Epstein, around $400 (£250).’



She met Andrew for the third and final time on Epstein’s Caribbean island, Little Saint James. Virginia was never under the British legal age of consent when she met Andrew. She was 17 during the first two encounters and 18 at the third.



Conviction: Jeffrey Epstein

By now, however, Epstein, had started to hint that she was getting ‘too old’ for him.



But during one trip to the island, Epstein and Ghislaine made their most astonishing proposition, and one which repulsed her. ‘They said Jeffrey wanted me to have his child,’ she says.



‘They said I was part of their family and I was beautiful,young, loyal and nurturing and would be a great mother.



They said I would have to sign a contract relinquishing rights to the child and consenting to Jeffrey having as many relationships as he liked. In return I would have my own mansion in Palm Beach and a large monthly payment, a percentage of his income.’



This, finally, was a wake-up call to Virginia and she began to see the way in which she had been groomed.



‘It was a smack in the face,’ she says. ‘I finally realised this wasn’t ever going to be a real relationship but I knew if I refused, I’d be thrown back on the streets. So I said, “I’m too young. I want to get my massage credentials, then maybe we’ll do it”.’



The tycoon took her at her word and, for her 19th birthday in August 2002, flew her to Thailand where he enrolled her in a massage course.



Shortly after arriving there, she met an Australian martial arts expert called Robert. They fell in love and, just ten days later, married in a Buddhist ceremony.



‘I called Jeffrey and told him I’d fallen madly in love,’ Virginia says. ‘I was hoping he’d be delighted. But he said, “Have a nice life,” and hung up on me.’ The couple now have two sons, aged five and four, and a daughter who recently turned one.



‘The first few months after I married Robert were the worst,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t bring myself to tell him much. No man wants to know his wife has been traded out.



‘I felt very alone. I was having panic attacks and seeing a psychiatrist and was on anti-depressants.



’ Virginia was beginning to put her Epstein days behind her when, three years ago, she was phoned by the FBI.



‘They said they had found photos of me at Jeffrey’s Palm Beach house,’ she says. ‘[Epstein had] hidden cameras watching me the entire time even when I was in the bathroom. I was so embarrassed.



‘I told the FBI that my true purpose was sexual. They told me everything he did was illegal because I was under age.’ (The age of consent in Florida is 18).



‘They said that if it had to go to trial, they’d need me because I’d lived with him and that made me a key witness. I was very afraid, because he had so much power, but eventually I agreed to testify.



I was glad he’d finally been found out. He shouldn’t be hurting other girls. Following Epstein’s arrest, investigators are believed to have found a list of men’s names on his computer and asked him whether they had been ‘treated’ to sexual encounters with his menage of minors.



‘He took the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer, indicating that if he were to answer the question, it could be incriminating,’ a source told The Mail on Sunday.



Epstein struck a deal resulting in what commentators characterised as a ‘slap on the wrist’ for him, and ended up serving 13 months of his sentence, much of it in a liberal work-release programme Lawyer Brad Edwards, who represented several of Epstein’s victims, said: ‘Rather than punish him the way they would an average Joe, they sent a clear message that with enough money and power and influence, the system can be bought.’



Virginia was spared her the humiliation of having to go before a jury, and has kept her feelings bottled up until last weekend’s photograph of Andrew with Epstein triggered distressing memories.



Virginia says: ‘I am appalled. To me, it’s saying, “We are above the law.” But Jeffrey is a monster.’

