Virginia Giuffre, who settled lawsuit against Duke of York, dies aged 41

Virginia Giuffre, who settled a sexual assault lawsuit against the Duke of York after being trafficked by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died aged 41.

She died on Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her publicist confirmed.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors,” her family said in a statement.

“Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.”

Her publicist Dini von Mueffling described Giuffre as “deeply loving, wise and funny”.

“She adored her children and many animals. She was always more concerned with me than with herself,” she wrote in a statement.

“I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

The American-born Giuffre, who lived in Australia for years, became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors after emerging as a central figure in Epstein’s prolonged downfall.

Ms Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts, told interviewers her childhood was shattered when she was sexually abused as a grade-schooler by a man her family knew.

She later ran away from home and endured more abuse, she said.

She married, moved to Australia and had a family and founded an advocacy charity, Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), in 2015.

She was treated in an Australian hospital after a serious accident, her publicist said last month.

She did not answer questions about the date, location, nature or other specifics of the accident and about the accuracy of an Instagram post that appeared from Ms Giuffre in which she said she had been in a car that was hit by a school bus, and her prognosis was dire.

She was charged with breaching a family violence restraining order in Ocean Reef, near Perth, on February 2, Western Australia (WA) Courts said.

Ms Giuffre’s case was first heard in Joondalup Magistrates’ Court in northern Perth on March 14, where she did not enter a plea.

The matter was adjourned to June 11 for a plea hearing, according to WA Courts.

Epstein killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on US federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14. The charges came 14 years after police in Palm Beach, Florida, first began investigating allegations he sexually abused underage girls who were hired to give him massages.

Giuffre came forward publicly after the initial investigation ended in an 18-month Florida jail term for Epstein, who made a secret deal to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty instead to relatively minor state-level charges of soliciting prostitution. He was released in 2009.

In subsequent lawsuits, Mr Giuffre said she was a teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago — President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach club — when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein’s girlfriend and later employee, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre said Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein, but the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates. Giuffre was flown around the world for assignations with men, including the Duke of York, while she was 17 and 18.

The duke paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre, whom he said he had never met.

She sued him for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.