prince andrew
© AFP 2019 / LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA
A 31-year-old woman, who reportedly wishes to remain unidentified, said in a Manhattan lawsuit on Monday that the notorious American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein raped her when she was just 15, and stressed that it is absurd to suggest that the friends of the deceased financier were unaware of his criminal behavior.
"Jeffrey Epstein was only a small part of an insidious system of privilege that exploits children as sexual commodities and robs them of their youth", the woman said at a news conference on Monday after filing a lawsuit, accompanied by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, according to The New York Post.
The alleged victim on Monday echoed a growing chorus of public accusation against the UK's Prince Andrew - the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II - and urged the FBI to question him "under oath" about his friendship with Epstein.
The woman claimed that one of Epstein's assistants contacted her to ask her to fly to his property in the Virgin Islands - "where I was told Andrew, among others, would be a guest" - but that that she declined "out of fear" after the pedophile and a female assistant had separately sexually assaulted her.
"Prince Andrew and any others who were close to Epstein should come forward and give a statement under oath on what information they have [...] Just because Epstein is dead doesn't mean that others around him don't deserve their day in court", the woman said, cited by The NY Post.
The alleged victim's lawyer, Gloria Allred, cited by the media outlet, claimed that the UK royal was in at least three of Epstein's residences and insisted that "he should have asked why these girls are here. Are they working here? What are their jobs? Where are their parents? [...] It's not something anyone should close their eyes to [...] These are kids. [Andrew] has two daughters".
The royal family and Prince Andrew have denied involvement in any crime or having any knowledge of any committed by Epstein, although the latter is a convicted sex abuser.

According to the lawsuit - filed under the pseudonym Jane Doe 15 - the then-Michigan teen met Epstein in 2004 during a school class trip to New York City and was soon transported on Epstein's private plane with numerous other girls to his Zorro Ranch in New Mexico.

According to The NY Post, citing a new lawsuit from one of Epstein's female associates described only as a woman with red hair - she was summoned to the main house at Zorro Ranch for a massage and then was sexually assaulted prior to the pedophile raping her.

Epstein, the deceased sex offender, had been under investigation for nearly two decades at the time of his suspicious death this summer. The convicted sex abuser was inexplicably taken off of suicide watch, despite reportedly trying to kill himself just weeks earlier. He was arrested in 2005 for molesting an underage girl. After being convicted of being a sex offender and pedophile, Epstein served a light sentence of just 13 months.

In July 2019, Epstein was arrested a second time and charged with trafficking minor girls at his residences for sex. Some of the charges date back to the 2000s. Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges but faced up to 45 years in prison had he been convicted.

According to multiple US-based media reports, the notorious American pedophile was linked to many powerful people, including US Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.