The revelations keep coming.
Two weeks after Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in New York of acting as mega-wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s chief accomplice in sexually assaulting young girls, another woman who moved in some of the highest circles of British society is going public with a new allegation.
And the fact that she used to be the girlfriend of the royal family’s Prince Andrew only heightens the drama.
According to the U.K. Daily Mail, Britain’s Lady Victoria Hervey, now 44, told the British television program “Lorraine” that Maxwell used her as “bait” to bring attractive women to the parties Epstein and Maxwell threw, capitalizing on the younger woman’s popularity and social standing some two decades ago.
“At the time I was the IT girl of London, on the social scene, everyone knew me, I was at every dinner event,” Hervey stated on the program, according to the Daily Mail. “It was a plus having me on her list of who to invite.”
And Epstein took advantage of it, she said.
“I think he just kind of sat back and sort of waited for [Maxwell] to sort of go fishing and go find however many girls were needed, you know, to entertain his friends,” Hervey explained. “I think I was pretty much used as bait.”
For the predatory pair, the pluses were obvious. A young, female semi-celebrity like Hervey would bring in attractive young women to the scene; attractive young women would help lure the rich and powerful men Epstein and Maxwell cultivated.
“It probably kept it more interesting for all the men [Maxwell] was entertaining,” the socialite told the program, the Daily Mail reported. “Obviously you want to have attractive girls who are the hot girls in London at the time.”
And Maxwell’s presence was key to Epstein’s plans.
“It wouldn’t have worked with him on his own. It was a lot easier for her to approach other women being a female,” Hervey explained.
“Girls would feel less intimated and less scared, rather than a man. It would have been a lot less obvious in that respect.”
Prince Andrew’s ex Lady Victoria Hervey compares Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein to ‘Batman and Robin’: dochttps://t.co/4UngahTGb2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 18, 2022
Hervey made it clear she thought Epstein and Maxwell were a team, a “Batman and Robin”-style “double act,” as she put it. However, she also said Maxwell — who started as Epstein’s girlfriend before becoming his pimp — was a victim of the man she procured sexual victims for.
“I mean to be honest I think Ghislaine was a victim and is a victim,” Hervey said, according to the Daily Mail.
“She was a victim that then became the accomplice as her role changed in that relationship when they were no longer together. She kind of switched sides. I do see her as a victim as well.”
And now, with Maxwell facing up to 65 years in prison thanks to her criminal convictions, she is a victim all over again, Hervey said, the Daily Mail reported. With Epstein not around to face justice after his death in an officially ruled “suicide” in a federal prison cell in Manhattan in 2019, only Maxwell is available for legal punishment.
“She is a scapegoat right now, so unfortunately for her, she is being taken down for what he has done as well,” she claimed. “Some might argue is not quite as fair as it could be.”
And that’s where things could get really interesting.
It’s no secret that Epstein catered to a world of extremely wealthy, powerful men.
His friendship with former President Bill Clinton, both during the Clinton presidency and afterward, is one case in point. His friendship with Prince Andrew is another.
Andrew has become a fixture of international headlines thanks to a lawsuit that’s been filed against him by Virginia Giuffre, who claims Maxwell and Epstein forced her to have sex with the prince when she was only 17.
As much as his lawyers are fighting it, Andrew has many questions to answer.
The Daily Mail does not say how long ago it was that Hervey was Andrew’s “love interest,” but the prince married Sarah Ferguson in 1986. Now divorced, the couple had two daughters, Beatrice, 33, and Eugenie, 31. Hervey has never married.
How many other big names might find themselves in the glare of publicity as part of the fallout from the Maxwell case. Facing decades in prison could be an incentive for Maxwell to go public with what she knows — and whom she knows it about.
(Of course, it could also be a reason she mysteriously commits “suicide” like her former lover, but no good comes of speculating about evil.)
One thing is sure, however. Hervey’s revelations won’t be the last connected to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their sordid story.
The only question, really, is who’s going to be hurt by them.