The US attorney of sex abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre says the world will never be the same again after her client’s death.
Giuffre, 41, took her own life on April 25 at her farmhouse in Neergabby, north of Perth, after her family said the ‘toll of abuse… became unbearable’.
She was among the most notable accusers of convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging they held her as a sex slave during her teenage years.
She stated that they trafficked her to the Duke of York when she was 17 and that she was sexually assaulted by him – an allegation Prince Andrew has consistently denied. The Prince reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022.
Sigrid McCawley was not only Giuffre’s lawyer but also a friend, who fought back tears in a 60 Minutes interview aired on Sunday night.
‘I used to say that we had broken through the lawyer-client line because she would sign her emails, ‘I love you Siggy’,’ she recalled.
‘She was just a dear person in my life. And I think that the world will not be the same without her. It just won’t be.’
The news of Giuffre’s death shocked Ms McCawley.
‘Overwhelming surprise and disbelief. True disbelief,’ she recalled.
‘It took me several hours to even come to terms with the fact that that was real.’
Ms McCawley never feared that Giuffre would take her own life, despite the deep physical and mental scars her client carried.
Her marriage to Robert Giuffre had recently broke down and she appeared to be estranged from the couple’s teenage children.
Then less than a month before her death, Giuffre took to social media claiming that she had renal failure and ‘four days to live’ following a crash involving a school bus.
‘I was concerned about her physical health,’ Ms McCawley revealed.
‘Virginia is always someone to rally, so every time I talked to her, she could find the sunny side of something.
‘So she was still very uplifted and we were focused on getting her care in the United States.
‘That’s why I think that the disbelief has been so strong.
‘I just keep thinking I’m going to see her again.
‘I think that while Virginia could face many demons in her life and and many villains, that moment of deprivation, I think was something that was more than she could handle.’
Ms McCawley said Giuffre left behind a powerful legacy.
‘She has left us with a feeling that irrespective of whether you’re a president, a politician, a billionaire or a prince, that you can be held accountable. You are not above the law,’ she said
‘She put Epstein in prison. She put Maxwell in prison.
‘She had Prince Andrew stripped of his titles.
‘Her words, her actions were incredible, and they started a movement of change.’
60 Minutes also looked back on its 2019 interview with Giuffre after Epstein took his own life in a jail cell.
Traumatic memories came flooding back as she stood outside his former New York mansion almost 20 years prior.
‘It’s hard. It’s really hard being back here… There’s a lot of scars hidden behind those walls,’ Giuffre recalled.
‘It should be ripped down, it should be burned to the ground
‘Some of my worst memories are from this place.’
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