New suit Epstein accuser Giuffre sued by another sex abuse victim of financier
New York: A woman who says financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her has sued another Epstein accuser for defamation, citing a series of year-old tweets.
Rina Oh filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court late on Friday AEST, citing a series of tweets by Virginia Giuffre, who recently sued Prince Andrew, claiming she was coerced into sexual encounters with him. Giuffre has said she was one of many girls and young women sexually abused by Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre in 2019. Credit:AP
Oh said authorities including the FBI have agreed with her that she was a young victim of Epstein 20 years ago and not a co-conspirator or part of his inner circle.
Yet, she maintained, Giuffre asserted in a series of October 2020 tweets that Oh was Epstein’s girlfriend and recruited girls for him to abuse.
“Rina- if you read this I hope you live in shame for the rest of your life,†said a portion of one tweet cited in the lawsuit.
Another tweet said Oh should be “sitting in jail†next to Ghislaine Maxwell.
Convicted sex offender and one-time financier Jeffrey Epstein.Credit:AP
Maxwell, 59, goes to trial in Manhattan in November to face charges that she recruited teenage girls in the mid-1990s for Epstein to sexually abuse and sex trafficked a teenage girl in the early 2000s. She has pleaded not guilty.
Another tweet cited in the lawsuit said Giuffre accused Oh of leaving a 6-inch (15 cm) scar on her leg from one of their encounters two decades ago.
AdvertisementThe lawsuit, though, said none of that was true, and that Giuffre “has maliciously reiterated and republished these defamations and slanders in prior and subsequent tweets and interviews on podcasts, TV and for magazines, as well as in her memoirs entitled Billionaire’s Playboy Club.â€
The “defamations and slanders†are causing Oh “great harm,†including humiliation, shame, disgrace, mental anguish, loss of life enjoyment and anxiety and emotion distress,†the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, which sought $US20 million ($26 million) in damages, was aiming at stopping what it called “false and defamatory bile.â€
Lawyers for Giuffre did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Oh has done in interviews and a podcast and Giuffre has done as well.
AP
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