Virginia Roberts, the woman who claims she was an underage sex slave for perverted financier Jeffrey Epstein has won another round in her fight against the woman she claims recruited her.

Roberts' lawyers persuaded a judge to throw out a motion that would have prevented her from suing Epstein's one-time girlfriend and alleged 'pimp' Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation.

Dailymail.com has learned the decision clears the way for the civil case to go ahead in New York in two weeks' time.

The defamation suit alleges Maxwell instructed her spokesman to attack Roberts' honesty and truthfulness and to accuse her of lying.

Maxwell, the daughter of former British press baron Robert Maxwell who died when he fell off his yacht in 1991, had argued that a press release in which she attacked Roberts was protected speech.

But Judge Robert Sweet refused to accept that argument in a 76-page decision, saying that Roberts was arguing that Maxwell released the damaging statement out of 'malice.'

Virginia Roberts, 33, (who now goes by married name Virginia Giuffre) is suing Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation after the British socialite released a damaging statement denying Roberts's claims that she recruited her as a sex slave from 1999 to 2001

The 33-year-old alleges financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her for years as Maxwell (who was his girlfriend at the time) passed her around among Epstein's friends for sex

It is the second time the judge has sided with Roberts. In February last year he denied Maxwell's request to throw out the lawsuit when she said she was just defending herself against allegations that she helped set up sexual encounters between Roberts and powerful men.

Roberts, now a 33-year-old mother-of-three, says she was recruited by Maxwell when she was just 15. She claims she was then passed around among Epstein's friends for underage sex.

She also claims Britain's Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth's second son, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz were among those she slept with. Both have vigorously denied her claims.

Maxwell, 55, was Epstein's girlfriend at the time.

In her lawsuit filed in 2015, Roberts — who now goes by her married name Virginia Giuffre — described how she became a victim of sex trafficking after Maxwell recruited her from a hotel where she worked.

Roberts claims Prince Andrew (pictured together with Maxwell in 2001) was among one of the many friends of Epstein she was forced to sleep with and said she once took part in an 11-person orgy with the prince

In an affidavit filed last year, Roberts said that she had had sex with Prince Andrew (pictured with Jeffrey Epstein on a stroll in New York) on Epstein's properties. Prince Andrew emphatically denied her allegations

'With the assistance of Maxwell, Epstein was able to sexually abuse Giuffre for years until Giuffre eventually escaped,' the lawsuit says.

'As part of their sex trafficking efforts, Epstein and Maxwell intimidated Giuffre into remaining silent about what had happened to her.'

After Roberts went public with her allegations, she describes how Maxwell undertook a 'concerted and malicious campaign to discredit Giuffre' so that her claims would not be believed.

The defamation suit alleges Maxwell instructed her spokesman to 'attack Giuffre's honesty and truthfulness and to accuse Giuffre of lying.'

It says Maxwell made a deliberate effort to 'maliciously discredit Giuffre and silence her efforts to expose sex crimes committed around the world by Maxwell, Epstein and other powerful persons. Maxwell made her statements knowing full well they were false.'

Maxwell has always refused to talk about her involvement with Epstein and has denied any involvement in sex trafficking.

Billionaire Epstein, now 64, served just 13 months after he was convicted of a single charge of soliciting prostitution from underage girls in 2006 - Maxwell has always refused to talk about her involvement with Epstein and has denied any involvement in sex trafficking

Court documents filed in 2014 in Palm Beach, Florida, revealed that after Maxwell was asked to attend a deposition by Roberts's lawyers she claimed her mother was on her death bed and had to leave the US with no plans to return.

Within weeks she was spotted at Chelsea Clinton's wedding in New York.

Billionaire Epstein, now 64, was sentenced to just 18 months in county jail and 12 months house arrest after he was convicted of a single charge of soliciting prostitution from underage girls in 2006. He served just 13 months.

The federal government decided against prosecuting him in a heavily criticized deal negotiated by then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who is now President Donald Trump's Secretary of Labor. If found guilty in federal court, Epstein could have received life in prison.

The agreement between Acosta and Epstein specifically said it 'will not be made part of any public record.' However, a federal judge later ordered it unsealed.

During his confirmation hearing Acosta said that 'based on the evidence' prosecutors decided to accept the deal as Epstein would serve some time and have to register as a sex offender for life. He had earlier said that evidence against Epstein grew stronger after the original court case.

Former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter, whose department conducted the initial investigation into the allegations, said Epstein got off easy.

'That wasn't an appropriate resolution of this matter,' Reiter said in a deposition for another civil lawsuit. He wrote to the parents of Epstein's victims saying justice had not been served, the Washington Post reported.

In a separate lawsuit, Roberts claimed that she was Epstein's sex slave between 1999 and 2002 and she once took part in an 11-person orgy with Prince Andrew.

However, a judge later threw out Roberts' allegations against Prince Andrew and ordered them to be struck from the court record calling them 'lurid', 'immaterial' and 'impertinent'

Roberts said that Epstein and Maxwell 'trained me to do what they wanted, including sexual activities and the use of sexual toys. The training was in New York and Florida, at Epstein's mansions.

'It was basically every day and was like going to school,' she added. 'I also had to have sex with Epstein many times. I was trained to be 'everything a man wanted.'

In February last year a judge denied Maxwell's request to throw out the lawsuit when she said she was just defending herself against allegations that she helped set up sexual encounters between Roberts and powerful men

'Maxwell was about sex all the time,' Roberts added. 'She had sex with underage girls virtually every day when I was around her, and she was very forceful.

'I first had sexual activities with her when I was approximately 15 at the Palm Beach mansion. I had many sexual activities with her over the next several years in Epstein's various residences plus other exotic locations.

'I also observed Maxwell have sex with dozens of underage girls. Many times she made me sleep with other girls, some of whom were very young, for purposes of taking sexual pictures.'

Roberts has now founded an organization, Victims Refuse Silence, to help victims of sex trafficking.

On its website, she wrote: 'At 15 years old, very wealthy and powerful people promised me a higher education and a better life. I was a vulnerable teenager and the offer was appealing.

'But before I knew it, I was thrown into a world of sexual servitude and guilted into believing that I was indebted to those who used me as a sexual servant.

'While traveling the world with some of the most powerful and connected world leaders in politics, science, and business made me believe that I was important, I was really only there to service these individuals sexually,' she added.

Bill Clinton was among those Roberts says she saw on Epstein's private Caribbean Island, but she says she never had sex with the former president, nor did she see him have sex with anyone else.

'In order to protect myself, I quickly appreciated that I had no choice but to comply with my master's directives,' Roberts wrote on her website. 'I was still only a child, and because of the extraordinary power that my abusers had, I believed that I could not report them. I did not think that anyone would listen to me.'

She said she escaped after she was sent to Thailand and 'met a man who gave me the courage that I needed to escape.' That man was Robert Giuffre, who she married 10 days after first meeting him.