Giuffre's story 'mirror to a system' that enables abuse, campaigners say

Virginia Giuffre's latest revelations are a "mirror held up to a system" that still enables powerful men to groom, abuse and exploit women with impunity, say women's rights campaigners.

- Rachel Hall

Excerpts from Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, which were released before its publication next week, lay bare how Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell took advantage of their position of power to manipulate and groom Giuffre.

In the posthumously published text, Giuffre warns that more women will suffer similar experiences if people continue to believe that Epstein was "an anomaly, an outlier".

She wrote: “The way he viewed women and girls - as playthings to be used and discarded - is not uncommon among certain powerful men who believe they are above the law. And many of those men are still going about their daily lives, enjoying the benefits of their power.”

Her view was echoed by women's rights experts and campaigners, who said wide-ranging reforms are needed to challenge deep-rooted societal and institutional misogyny.