page_title: Virginia Roberts Giuffre
section_title: Decision to speak out publicly
hierarchical_section_title: Virginia Roberts Giuffre / Legal proceedings / Decision to speak out publicly
caption_attribution_description: Blue Morpho Wings Open
context_page_description: Virginia Louise Giuffre is an American advocate of justice for sex trafficking victims. She is one of the most prominent and outspoken survivors of the sex trafficking ring that was operated by convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. She founded the nonprofit organization Victims Refuse Silence in 2015 and has been widely featured in interviews with American and British media describing her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, to individuals including Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, and Jean-Luc Brunel.
  Giuffre has pursued criminal and civil actions against Epstein and Maxwell and has appealed directly to the public for justice and awareness. She sued Maxwell for defamation in 2015, and the case was settled in Giuffre's favor for an undisclosed sum in 2017. On July 2, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the unsealing of documents from the earlier civil suit by Giuffre against Maxwell. The first batch of documents from Giuffre's suit were released to the public on August 9, 2019, further implicating Epstein, Maxwell, and a number of his associates.
context_section_description: Giuffre credited the birth of her daughter on January 7, 2010, as the date she decided to come forward publicly and begin speaking out about her experiences of sexual abuse and trafficking, despite the risks. Vanity Fair stated that Giuffre's story was first publicized in March 2011 by the Mail on Sunday; the coverage included the photo showing Prince Andrew with his arm around her at Maxwell's house in Belgravia, London. FBI agents again made contact with Giuffre, this time at the US consulate in Sydney in 2011, soon after she went public with allegations against Epstein and Prince Andrew.
  In December 2014, Giuffre set up the framework for her organization Victims Refuse Silence.  It was registered as a 501c3 non-profit organization in 2015.  The objective of Victims Refuse Silence is to "help survivors surmount the shame, silence, and intimidation typically experienced by victims of sexual abuse, and to help others to escape becoming victims of sex trafficking." For her organization Victims Refuse Silence (VRS), Giuffre has utilized imagery of a blue Morpho butterfly to symbolize the transformation and empowerment that occurs when a victim becomes a survivor. Blue is the international color of human trafficking awareness. The United States has designated January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month with January 11 listed as National Wear Blue Day.
caption: Victims Refuse Silence uses a blue butterfly as a symbol of transformation and empowerment for survivors of sexual abuse
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