Featured Image Credit: Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, Sexual Abuse, Crime, News
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, Sexual Abuse, Crime, News
A woman who says she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein has shared her experiences of being assaulted by the disgraced financier after she was recently named in the Department of Justice's files on him.
A slew a documents were released in late January amid calls for all the files on Epstein to be made public, but rather than name Epstein's associates, several victims' names were released – including Juliette Bryant.
Now Bryant has sat down for an emotional interview with Sky News where she discussed being recruited by the convicted sex offender back in 2002.
Bryant says she never told anyone about her experiences with Epstein until his death in 2019. She was just 20 years old when she was recruited by him in Cape Town, South Africa, and she thought all her 'dreams came true' when it happened.
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"It just seemed like my dreams were all coming true because our family was struggling financially and I just really wanted to try and make a difference for my family," Bryant told Sky News.
Three weeks after meeting him for the first time in a restaurant – where Epstein had been with Bill Clinton – the young woman was jetted to New York. A few hours that, Bryant was then shipped off to the Caribbean.
She traveled there by private jet and boarded the aircraft to find Epstein waiting for her. Also on the plane were the women who she says recruited her.
"He patted the chair next to him... and then I went and sat there. It was such a confusing situation for a young person to be in," Bryant recalled.
"As the plane took off, he started forcibly touching me in between my legs, and I just freaked out and I suddenly realised – oh my God, my family aren't going to see me again, these people might kill me, you know?"
She added: "They [the women] were laughing. I was really, really petrified."
Wiping away her tears, Bryant went on to say that the whole ordeal 'changed [her]' and she genuinely feared for her life at the time.
After she and several other victims were named in the Epstein files, they issued a joint statement where they called out the DOJ for exposing survivors.
Part of the message read (via The Guardian): "This latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files is being sold as transparency, but what it actually does is expose survivors. Once again, survivors are having their names and identifying information exposed, while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected. That is outrageous. As survivors, we should never be the ones named, scrutinized, and retraumatized while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from secrecy. This is a betrayal of the very people this process is supposed to serve."
The statement was signed by Bryant, as well as Annie Farmer, Anouska de Georgiou, Ashley Rubright, AW, Danielle Bensky, Jane Doe, Jane Doe, JD, Jess Michaels, Lara Blume McGee, Liz Stein, Marijke Chartouni, Marina Lacerda, Rachel Benavidez, Sky & Amanda Roberts (the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre), Sharlene Rochard, Teresa J Helm, and Wendy Pesante.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.