Posted by The notorious Epstein files allege that a 13-year-old girl was trafficked to Ireland for sex with politicians and notable men, now a survivors group insists the Government must look into the financier and his network of predators
Aged just 21 and keen to enjoy life, Lisa Phillips had no idea what was ahead of her. A modelling assignment in the Caribbean had led to herself and a friend heading to an island owned by Jeffrey Epstein for what she thought might be a fun day out.
Jeffrey groomed me,’ Phillips says, speaking softly in a Dublin hotel restaurant. ‘Whenever I first met him, he honed in on me. He just sat there for hours and talked to me and asked me questions – amazing questions that make you really think about your life, or almost bond you to that person, about my dreams and ambitions. But we also talked a lot about my family. I felt at the time, this guy really cares about me.’
A lot of Epstein survivors have the same story, she says.
She was introduced to the man in the pool who she says was Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. When she told Epstein she had lived in Oxford in England until the age of five, he asked her if she wanted to meet a prince and she was briefly introduced to the man in the pool. She didn’t see him again after that.
Trapped on the island later that night, Epstein summoned Lisa and her friend to his room demanding a ‘massage’ and then sexually assaulted them when they had no escape. It was the beginning of a dark time in Lisa’s life, during which she was subjected to abuse at the hands of Epstein and others.
After the incident on the island, she got on the boat in the morning and went back to her photoshoot as if nothing had happened, then headed home to New York.
‘I was trying to suppress that memory and not think about it but, on the other side, his secretary Leslie Groff kept calling me profusely,’ she recalls. ‘Every other day, definitely every week, saying, “Jeffrey really liked you. He wants to meet with you.”‘
Lisa refused until, four months later, Epstein himself called her and said that he had created an appointment for her with a prominent modelling agency. He was back to his charming self again and Lisa somehow thought she had misread the situation and so, was drawn into Epstein’s web.
There were other model friends who were in the same situation. Epstein was kind and encouraging, advising girls about their careers, paying for education but all the while trafficking them to unscrupulous rich and influential men from all walks of life.
‘He introduced a lot of the girls that came from good families to men to become their wives,’ Lisa says. ‘A lot of Epstein victims became the wives. It’s part of getting the right girl to be the wife so they stay complicit. And they really want to educate you so that you are a cultured, educated woman who stays silent.’
Three years after she first met him, her friend, a blonde-haired blue-eyed woman from a wealthy family, told her she had been forced into a room to have sex with a man.
‘I had never seen that side of Jeffrey because he was always pretending to be a good helper and a mentor,’ she says.
But it soon happened that he demanded that Lisa meet with Ghislaine Maxwell and a major celebrity with the intention of having sex. When she refused he ‘went dark’ and she knew she had to get away.
Her stories of her time with Epstein are too graphic and harrowing for publication and still today, the gentle and statuesque former model is visibly upset when recounting what happened.
Lisa moved to Los Angeles and tried to get on with her life, getting married and having children. She suppressed everything that had happened to her, partially out of fear, as while Epstein was still alive and headlines began appearing, he would often ring her to tell her to stay quiet.
But as Virginia Giuffre and others began coming forward, and following Epstein’s death, Lisa felt the only way she could channel her own anger was to speak out. Around this time, she reached out to Virginia, who felt she remembered Lisa from Little St James.
After Lisa offered to support Virginia, she decided also to set up her podcast From Now On to help other victims of abuse and became a voice among the Epstein survivors, calling for details of those in the Epstein files to be released.
‘My podcast is about survivors,’ she says. ‘I wanted to speak out and finally tell my story. I come from the modelling industry so I was fed up with seeing so many young models still being abused the way I was 15 years before.
‘I just really wanted to be a support for survivors out there, just have a place for them to go, because most don’t get justice. There is a lot of empowerment in telling their story.’
Lisa has now teamed up with Sam Maloney – a former drummer with bands like Hole, Eagles Of Death Metal and Billy Ray Cyrus – to help survivors of abuse and domestic violence get their voices heard. For Sam, it was starting work behind the scenes of the music industry that allowed her to see the scale of abuse and corruption there.
‘I was working in A&R and there were multiple women coming to me telling me that they were being abused by high-level executives,’ Sam says.
‘Any time I complained to HR, they would drop the artist and give those guys raises.
‘I just could not believe that in my 20-plus years of being a career musician, in some really great bands, I never saw the depravity of what was going on, how all these artists were being abused, tossed to the side. So I thought, I can’t stand here and not deal with anything or say anything.’
She has been working with a former Californian state senator on legislation around America to help victims of abuse.
‘Lisa and I just started a nonprofit political advocacy organisation called the Sexual Predator Accountability Institute,’ she says. ‘We are working with legislators in different parts of America to help survivors of sexual assault by changing the laws for a civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse.
‘The Sexual Predator Accountability Institute is a place where survivors can reach out to us and tell us their stories, and we will keep them safe, and we will figure out if there’s a way we can help,’ Sam says, insisting that the horror of the Epstein case is simply the tip of the iceberg.
‘We just recently reopened the adult sexual assault window in California,’ she says. ‘Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law so that will allow victims of sexual assault in the state of California to file civil lawsuits against their abusers.’
She has been supporting many women who were assaulted by rock stars, actors, producers and politicians – the list is endless. She met Lisa through Bill Cosby survivor Victoria Valentino.
The women were in Washington DC when Pam Bondi, the United States Attorney General, refused to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who had turned up at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Bondi refused to apologise to the women or even look at them.
But that has not prevented the survivors’ voices from being heard, as both Lisa and Sam feel that the tide is turning.
Lisa believes the redacted Epstein files are serving only to protect the perpetrators of abuse and have not in any way protected the survivors.
She and Sam are among those campaigning for the full details in the files to be released and made public in every country that has been mentioned.
IRISH LINKS
Following the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor yesterday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, both Lisa and Sam want governments all around the world to investigate any mentions of their country or citizens contained in the Epstein files. That includes Ireland.
‘The Epstein files contain an allegation from a woman claiming she was trafficked to Ireland as a 13-year-old child,’ Sam says. ‘A woman whose name is redacted alleges that she was trafficked to Ireland for sex with politicians and notable men.’
The allegations were set out in an email last year, but the woman is reported to have claimed that she had photos that proved she was on Little St James.
‘The date the woman was allegedly flown to Ireland has not been disclosed,’ Sam says.
‘This needs to be investigated, as do any incidents of Jeffrey Epstein being in Ireland.’
The issue has already been raised in the Dáil by Labour TD Duncan Smith. Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Dáil he will discuss references made to Ireland in the files with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan but as yet there is no Garda investigation into Epstein’s Irish visits.
During their time here, Sam and Lisa have subsequently met with Labour leader Ivana Bacik TD, who they hope will raise the issue again.
‘Ivana Bacik has confirmed her strong support for Lisa Phillips and for all the survivors of the extensive abuse perpetrated by and within Jeffrey Epstein’s network of predators,’ Sam says, adding that Ivana was very glad to meet with Lisa while she was in Dublin, and to hear directly from her about her own experiences of Epstein.
‘Ivana has committed to pursuing the issue at political level and will be asking the Taoiseach and Irish Government to ensure that all files are released without delay – redacted to protect victims and survivors – that are related to any activities in Ireland of Epstein and his network of abusers. She will also be calling on the Irish Government to press the British Government for release of the Epstein files there too.’
Lisa is insistent that more needs to be done to bring those involved in Epstein’s circle of sexual abuse to justice, wherever in the world they happen to live.
Yesterday Virginia’s family thanked the British police for their investigation and Lisa echoes that sentiment.
‘We join Virginia’s family in thanking the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their investigation and arrest of Andrew MountbattenWindsor,’ she says. ‘We call on all nations to launch independent investigations of any powerful individuals of that nation that are credibly implicated in the Epstein files. The fight by the Epstein survivors has now become a global fight for justice.’
Too many women suffered at the hands of the rich and powerful, who were used as pawns in Jeffrey Epstein’s game, too many lost their lives because of the trauma of what happened to them. For Lisa, the taking back of power started with Virginia Giuffre and will continue as more women join forces to speak up for each other.
‘The visuals of these women who have been abused coming forward and coming together has become very powerful and people are now asking these questions like, why, in all of this, is there only one person in jail and it’s a woman?’ Sam says.
‘The turning point was Virginia,’ Lisa adds. ‘As survivors, that’s what happens when you’re abused throughout your life, and you go through something like this, and no one believes you. So when we came together, it was really in support, to say enough is enough. When we got together at Capitol Hill the power shifted and the world actually listened to us.’
Sam adds: ‘People still ask me if I’m still playing drums. I’ve never stopped – I’m just beating a different drum. The drum of justice and accountability.’
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