Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law have hit out at having to ‘pull out the skeletons for people to be held accountable’ for links to the paedophile financier.
They said that Lord Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed UK ambassador to the US, given his close relationship with ‘best pal’ Epstein.
The Labour grandee was sacked on Thursday after emails were published showing he had sent supportive messages to Epstein, even as the paedophile faced jail for sex offences.
A birthday book for Epstein’s 50th birthday included a handwritten message from Mandelson, including a photo of him happily chatting to the billionaire while wearing a bathrobe.
Ms Giuffre killed herself in April aged 41, while living in Australia. She had become Epstein’s most high profile accuser, alleging that she was sexually abused by Prince Andrew on three occasions when she was a 17-year-old victim of trafficking.
Her brother, Sky Roberts, and sister-in-law Amanda Roberts gave their first broadcast interview in the UK this morning, speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
Asked if Lord Mandelson should have been given the role in February, Mr Roberts said: ‘Absolutely not. He should not have been given the position in the first place.”
Ms Roberts said: ‘Why does it take us to have to pull out the skeletons for people to be held accountable?
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‘Our governments have allowed these people to hold their status and their title without shame, and so part of me is like, we should have done something sooner. He should have never been given that title.’
Prince Andrew has always denied wrongdoing, saying he did not recall ever meeting Ms Giuffre.
He stepped down from public life in 2019 after the furore over his friendship with Epstein following a disastrous interview with Newsnight in which he claimed he had an inability to sweat, and could not have been with Ms Guiffre in London on the night she claimed, because he was at Pizza Express in Woking.
After she brought a civil case against him, he paid millions to settle the case out of court in 2021.
Ms Roberts said the royal family had not reached out to their family in any way following the settlement, and that she believes more revelations will ‘come to light’.
It was also claimed today that Prince Andrew could face further questions as part of the US Congress examination of hundreds of thousands of documents relating to Epstein.
There were claimed to be over 100 secret emails between Epstein and the prince, with some containing ‘incriminating’ material.
A source with knowledge of the US investigation told the Mail on Sunday: ‘If you think what’s happened to Peter Mandelson is bad then you have no idea what will happen when the Andrew emails are released.’
‘They are embarrassing and incriminating and he could be destroyed.’
Epstein’s death in a US jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial was ruled to be suicide.
A memoir of Giuffre’s life, titled Nobody’s Girl, is scheduled to be released in October.
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