Virginia Giuffre, Child Protection, Lydia Becker

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

An out-of-court settlement has been reached between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre. She'd accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. He's always denied it and hasn't admitted any liability. We examine what the settlement means for Virginia Giuffre with the lawyer, Georgina Calvert-Lee and Jess Phillips MP, who's Labour's Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding. There have been some desperately sad news reports recently about children who've been killed by those they loved and trusted. We talk in depth about child protection? Are vulnerable and at-risk children being removed quick enough from their families? Or do we have a system which takes too many children away without trying other ways to help first? We speak to author and journalist, Polly Curtis who's been investigating this issue as well as Alison Bavidge from the Scottish Association of Social Workers Do you know who Lydia Becker was? She was a suffragist, and one of our listeners really got into her during lock-down. Joanna Williams sat down at her kitchen table and wrote a book about her. It helped her cope with being a full-time carer to her husband. Did you know that women led Bronze Age immigration to Orkney? New research led to the finding. We speak to Dr. Maria Pala from the Archaeogenetics Research Group at the University of Huddersfield to find out more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:05.3	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.
0:09.9	Last night, the world learned that the Queen's second son, Prince Andrew, had settled a civil
0:14.2	sexual assault case brought against him in America by Virginia Dufre.
0:18.8	Having vowed to fight it in court, the Duke settled.
0:21.7	Virginia Dufre also wanted her day in court, but instead accepted an undisclosed sum of money
0:26.5	with a substantial donation going to her victim's rights charity, which is called SOAR.
0:31.6	She has been suing him, claiming that the Duke sexually assaulted her on three occasions
0:36.0	when she was 17.
0:37.5	Allegations, he has repeatedly denied.
0:40.4	In this settlement, the Duke made no admission of liability, but in the statement submitted
0:45.1	to the judge, he did accept Virginia Dufre as an established victim of abuse, and that
0:50.4	she has suffered as a result of unfair public attacks.
0:54.0	And that statement went on to say, for the first time, that he regrets his association
0:58.5	with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who trafficked countless young girls over many
1:04.3	years, and he commended the bravery of Virginia Dufre and other survivors in standing up for
1:10.1	themselves and others.
1:12.2	Today, much of the coverage in the UK certainly is focused on what could be the road back for
1:17.3	Prince Andrew to a potential public role.
1:20.6	But on this programme, we're going to focus on this statement and what the subtle and not-so-subtle
1:26.2	changes in the Duke of York's position potentially tell us, and examine what justice for Virginia
1:32.2	Dufre could look like and looks like perhaps this morning after that settlement.
	...

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