Virginia Guiffre's dad insists she didn't die by suicide, claims someone ‘got to' her
The father of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most outspoken survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse, has claimed his daughter did not die by suicide.
Giuffre, 41, died by suicide in Neergabby, Australia last week, according to a statement from her family last week. But now, her father Sky Roberts has questioned that version of events, telling Piers Morgan he believes someone 'got to her' Giuffre.
'First of all, I couldn't even believe it. I mean, I started crying right away,' Roberts said when asked about Giuffre's death. 'I'm still crying. I can't believe that this is happening. It's impossible.'
'And then for them to say that she committed suicide, there's no way that she did,' he continued. 'Somebody got to her.'
Roberts added that Giuffre was 'very strong' and 'had too much to live for.'
Morgan also asked Roberts what he would say to those who doubted his daughter's claims of sexual abuse.
'I believed everything she said,' Roberts responded. 'She was my daughter.'
Giuffre was an advocate for sexual abuse survivors, even founding the non-profit Speak Out, Act, Reclaim. The organization is 'dedicated to providing a safe and empowering space for survivors of sex trafficking to reclaim their stories and stand up for themselves and each other.'
Giuffre was also one of the first people to call for criminal charges against Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 after his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. Giuffre recounted how she was groomed by British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell - to be sexually abused by Epstein. She even provided key information to law enforcement that helped prosecutors ultimately convict Maxwell in 2021.
Fellow survivors of Epstein's abuse also credit Giuffre with helping give them the courage to speak out.
According to interviews and depositions, Giuffre said she was recruited by Maxwell while working as a locker room attendant in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago.
She once said Epstein passed her around 'like a platter of fruit' to other men when she was a teenager. She also accused Epstein of trafficking her to Prince Andrew when she was 17, which he has denied.
In 2009, Giuffre (then identified only as Jane Doe) sued Epstein and Maxwell, claiming they recruited her to join a sex-trafficking ring as a minor under the false promise of becoming a professional masseuse. Giuffre went on to identify herself publicly in 2015.
She went on to sue Prince Andrew in 2021, settling with him a year later. The settlement sum went towards Giuffre's organization, Speak Out, Act, Reclaim.
Her family announced her death last Friday.
'It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,' Giuffre's family said in a statement provided to The Independent. 'She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.'
Giuffre was a 'fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking,' the statement continues. 'She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.'
Giuffre appeared to have health problems leading up to her death. She posted a photo of herself with a bruised face in a hospital bed on Instagram earlier this year, explaining that doctors told her she had 'four days to live' due to kidney failure following a car wreck. She was discharged from the hospital six days later.
Giuffre was also supposed to appear in court on April 9 after being charged with violating a family violence restraining order obtained by her husband, People reported. She allegedly violated the order by calling her husband on February 2.
However, her court appearance was postponed at the request of her attorney, and a judge granted her an extension until June to enter a plea.
If you are based in the U.S. and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can also speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Supreme Court of Canada to hear appeal in long-running Facebook privacy case
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to review a ruling that concluded Facebook broke federal privacy law by failing to adequately inform users of risks to their data when using the popular social media platform. Last September, the Federal Court of Appeal found Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, did not obtain the meaningful consent required by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act between 2013 and 2015. The decision overturned a 2023 Federal Court ruling. The Court of Appeal said Facebook invited millions of apps onto its platform and did not adequately supervise them. It found that the Federal Court's failure to engage with the relevant evidence on this point was an error of law. Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne called the Court of Appeal decision an acknowledgment that international firms whose business models rely on users' data must respect Canadian privacy law. Facebook applied for a hearing at the Supreme Court, arguing the Court of Appeal took the wrong approach to consent and security safeguards under the privacy law. It said in a written application that, rather than evaluating Facebook's multi-layered efforts to obtain meaningful consent, the Court of Appeal focused myopically on the platform's privacy policy alone. The Supreme Court, following its usual practice, gave no reasons Thursday for agreeing to hear the case. A 2019 investigation report from then-federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien and his British Columbia counterpart cited major shortcomings in Facebook's procedures and called for stronger laws to protect Canadians. The probe followed reports that Facebook let an outside organization use a digital app to access users' personal information, which was then passed to others. The app, at one point known as "This is Your Digital Life," encouraged users to complete a personality quiz but collected information about the people who installed the app and data about their Facebook friends. Recipients of the information included the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which was involved in U.S. political campaigns and targeted messaging. About 300,000 Facebook users worldwide added the app, leading to the potential disclosure of the personal information of approximately 87 million others, including more than 600,000 Canadians, the commissioners' report said. The commissioners concluded that Facebook violated PIPEDA by failing to obtain valid and meaningful consent from installing users and their friends, and that it had "inadequate safeguards" to protect user information. Facebook disputed the investigation's findings. The company has said it tried to work with the privacy commissioner's office and take measures that would go above and beyond what other companies do. In early 2020, Therrien asked the Federal Court to declare Facebook had violated the law. A judge ruled the commissioner failed to establish that Facebook breached the law on meaningful consent. He also agreed with Facebook's argument that once a user authorizes it to disclose information to an app, the social media company's safeguarding duties under PIPEDA come to an end. In its decision, the Court of Appeal noted Facebook's contention that users read privacy policies presented to them when they sign up to social networking websites — something the judges called "a dubious assumption" given such documents can run to thousands of words. "Terms that are on their face superficially clear do not necessarily translate into meaningful consent," Justice Donald Rennie wrote for a three-member panel. "Apparent clarity can be lost or obscured in the length and miasma of the document and the complexity of its terms." In this case, Rennie said, a central question was whether a reasonable person "would have understood that in downloading a personality quiz (or any app), they were consenting to the risk that the app would scrape their data and the data of their friends, to be used in a manner contrary to Facebook's own internal rules (i.e. sold to a corporation to develop metrics to target advertising in advance of the 2016 U.S. election)." This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2025. Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Laurence Fox wears ‘two tier' cap to court
Laurence Fox wore a 'two tier' cap as he arrived at court over a sexual offence. The former actor, 47, is accused of sharing a compromising photo on social media of TV presenter Narinder Kaur, who regularly appears on Good Morning Britain. The cap was Fox's second apparent reference during his trial to 'two-tier justice' – the claim that the criminal justice system treats different groups of people differently. He had arrived at court in April with a cap that read 'two-tier Britain'. He appeared at Woolwich Crown Court charged with two counts under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, while Ms Kaur, who has waived her right to anonymity, sat in the public gallery. The former actor is accused of sharing a photograph of a person's genitals 'intending that the person or another person would see the genitals, and for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, and being reckless as to whether that person would be caused alarm, distress or humiliation' in the first count. The second count alleges he shared a photograph which showed, or appeared to show, 'another person in an intimate state, with the intention of causing that person alarm, distress or humiliation'. The court hearing on Thursday was listed for plea and trial preparation. However, Fox, wearing a white shirt and grey blazer with jeans, was not asked to enter any pleas. A provisional trial, estimated to last four days, was set for Dec 6 2027 at the same court, with Fox granted bail to appear for a further case management hearing on Nov 14 this year. Sarah Forshaw KC, defending, asked the court if it would be possible to look at whether other venues may be able to accommodate an earlier trial because 'December 2027 is a long way ahead'. The police previously said Fox had been 'charged with an offence contrary to section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003' which 'relates to an image that was posted on a social media platform in April 2024'. Section 66A of the Sexual Offences Act relates to 'cyber flashing'. The charge, introduced in 2023, makes it a criminal offence to intentionally share a sexual image of someone without consent, with the aim of causing alarm, distress, humiliation or for sexual gratification. Upskirting, which involves taking pictures of people under their clothes without their permission, became a specific criminal offence in 2019. Offenders can face up to two years in jail and be placed on the sex offenders register. Fox was fired from GB News in October 2023 after an on-air rant about Ava Evans, the political editor of the JOE news platform. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
More arrests after third night of unrest in N. Ireland town
Riot police were pelted with petrol bombs, masonry and fireworks and nine officers were wounded in the third night of unrest in Northern Ireland, police said on Thursday amid simmering anti-immigrant anger. The three days of clashes in Ballymena erupted on Monday night after two teenagers were arrested for an alleged attempted rape of a young girl at the weekend. Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody and had asked for a Romanian interpreter in court. The crowds eventually dispersed late Wednesday without a repeat of the chaotic scenes seen on Monday and Tuesday when houses and businesses were torched and 32 police officers were injured. But in Larne, around 20 miles (32 kilometres) away, local media reported that masked men on Wednesday torched a leisure centre that was temporarily sheltering people from Ballymena who had been evacuated from their homes. Police condemned Wednesday night's violence, which included a hatchet being thrown at officers, calling it "completely unacceptable disorder". Six more people were arrested, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. "As a result of a significant policing operation calm was restored to all areas at around 1:00 am (0000 GMT) this morning," the force added. Three teenage boys aged 15, 17 and 18 were due to appear in court on Thursday having been charged with rioting, according to police. A total of 41 officers have now been hurt in the three nights of unrest, the PSNI said, though most of the injuries were not severe. Ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive strongly condemned "the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days", while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the "mindless violence". The UK's Northern Ireland minister Hilary Benn, who visited Ballymena on Thursday, said he "utterly condemned the terrible scenes of civil disorder". - 'Terrifying' - Police called the violence "racist thuggery", deployed riot officers with dogs and asked forces in England and Wales for help quelling the unrest. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said Thursday that "this criminal behaviour has no place on the streets of Northern Ireland and is completely unacceptable". On the fire in Larne, police said: "Shockingly, people were inside the building at the time of this fire -– thankfully no injuries were reported." Ballymena residents have described "terrifying" scenes in which attackers had targeted "foreigners" over the previous days. Some people fixed signs to their houses indicating they were Filipino residents, or hung up British flags. Political commentator Alex Kane, a former Ulster Unionist Party communications chief, told AFP "most of those involved in the rioting... were from the working-class loyalist community" who support Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK. "This is a demographic which feels left behind" by various political and social forces, he added. "An unsettled community, particularly when it is mostly composed of the young, is often quick to anger and easy to mobilise on the street. It's a problem which won't disappear any time soon," he warned. While acknowledging the protests were a "bit extreme", college student Lee Stewart described them as necessary "to defend our own people". "We view it as the police aren't doing anything to stop what is going on to those poor wee girls," Stewart, 18, said. bur-pmu-jwp/jkb/phz/giv