HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015649

12/8/2015

‘The first few months after | 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.

‘l felt very alone. | 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 | was in the bathroom. | was so embarrassed.

‘| told the FBI that my true purpose was sexual. They told me everything he did was illegal because |

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. | was very afraid, because he had so much power, but eventually | agreed to testify.

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

Last night, neither Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell nor Prince Andrew would comment on Virginia’s story.

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