I’m beginning to feel sorry for Prince Andrew.

Bluebelle I'm glad you disassociated yourself from the comments of Bluebellewouldbe, whose views I could see were very different from your own.

I feel not one ounce of pity for Andrew.

curlywhirly spot on.

I can't believe that these girls are being blamed; it doesn't matter if they were happy to receive gifts, treats and promises of goodness knows what - they were UNDERAGE, end of. There are no excuses for anyone willing to have sex and coerce a child, none. And if Andrew, knowing what Epstein was found guilty of, tried to plea bargain on his behalf - that's just sick; why on God's earth would he do that? Throw the book at the lot of them.

Therein lies your answer Anniebach
Parental guidance was just not there for that child.

Abuse takes many forms and neglect is one.
She’s not the only one to be abused by family and she won’t be the last.

There has and always (sadly) will be exploitation of young vulnerable girls (& boys) , I believe it is incumbent on adults to behave in a decent manner, not to do so is to be morally corrupt & totally lacking in morale fibre , sad to say Prince Andrew (IMO) falls into this category if the the rumours & speculation about this subject are true.

Please will someone explain to me why the use of initials instead plain English is neccessary, I have even seen someone doing this and then writing what it means, so it is not laziness. Before I am attacked yes I did have a good education (Grammar school. am old and hate all the nastiness on here as well.

The blame lies with the adult men who want to have sex with teenagers. On a child protection course I attended, the question of why prostitution exists was asked. The answer is “because there is a demand”.
Andrew’s friend made a good living from the demand.

Few months off 16 that should say.

Sorry I have no idea what you are saying Anniebach, child abuse is an issue in all societies, disbelieving girls and women is not the way to approach it. We disagree on how to protect children I think the way we protect children is not to argue that 15 is just a few years off 16. I think people who say that are making a society even more dangerous for children and make it even more difficult for parents to protect their children.

Galaxy the NSPCC has just said abuse of children has risen
since lockdown, where was our civilised society

It does matter if parents know , it does matter is some girls
agree.

This doesn’t mean an excuse for abusers, but children should be protected by their parents .

Do we allow a child play on a road and say all the blame lies
with the driver who runs the child down.

Guiffrie’s father is know giving interviews, where the hell was
he when his daughter aged 13 was living with a paedophile

Do we know that the parents were aware of what was happening? What were they told by Epstein and Maxwell? Why are so many choosing to blame the girls and the parents rather than Epstein and Maxwell? They are the ones who groomed and abused the girls.

It doesn't matter if the parents knew or not, it doesn't matter what the girls agreed to do - Epstein and Maxwell are not the victims here.

Many parents fail in their duty to protect their children as a civilised society we dont abandon those children.

And why if the parents fail in their duty the law should protect the child. But it seems rich powerful men are above the law.

And why we expect parents to protect their children

It's why we expect the adults around them to behave with decency. It's why there are laws about teachers for example having relationships with pupils.

The pre-frontal cortex in the brain doesn't develop properly until you are in your 20s. Teens use a different part of their brain to take decisions. It's why they take more rsiks and behave differently. Clear info here www.kidshealth.org.nz/adolescent-brain-development

A woman’s brain is not fully developed until 25yrs?.

I’m not sure where that assertion began, in my experience most 18yr olds are pretty mature, they dont always make the sensible decision, what to them is a rational decision. That however can be said of any age or sex, silly or emotional decisions are not uncommon.

Most 16 yr olds can make decisions for themselves, when they are sober, it’s when they are intoxicated that things go wrong. Also we allow our children to become sexualised too early, before they are able to make rational decisions, this can affect them for the rest of their lives

Jane10 you're right about attempts by parents and social workers/health workers etc to get the Police investigate. That happened in all the areas where grooming was known.
I agree the situation is different than the one in the US except, in both cases we had girls who were 'vulnerable' to exploitation for various reasons. We had adults, mostly men but also women, who were involved in the exploitation. In the Epstein and the Rochdale cases, police found that some of the girls were involved in 'recruiting' others and were given financial or other rewards.

The programme about the Rotherham girls highlighted that concerned social workers and several of the girls' mothers tried very hard to get the authorities including the police to address the horrific situation the girls found themselves in. Yet they were ignored. That situation is a world apart from the one in America under discussion.

The woman under discussion said she took a break from sex work, I doubt the girls in Rotherham and the other cities/towns took a break.

As for the father, he looked at the house his 15 year old daughter was to live, she was living with a peodophile when she was 13. Went back to live with her father when she was 14,
some father
Where were the social workers in Rotherham

The young woman under discussion isn’t well educated or certainly wasn’t when she’d 15 she was groomed by maxwell. The similarities with the girls who were groomed and sexually exploited in Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and many other English towns and cities, are clear.
So many comments here mirror the negative, critical comments made about those girls. They, like the Epstein girls, were accused of making lifestyle choices.
The parents of both sets of girls are blamed. VG’s father was taken to one of Epstein’s homes to be shown where his child was to live whilst she studied massage therapy.
The Netflix documentary is IMO good, it avoids sensationalising because it doesn’t need to.

It is also known that a teenagers brain is not fully developed until age 25 so they see the world through their emotions and so are able to be coerced whatever.

So it isn't a teenager's brain then. Not if they're 25!

Do you mean a 25 year old's brain is not fully developed?

By the time I was 25, I'd had a flat in Liverpool, worked in a bank, got married, had a baby, lived in the Canaries and by 26 I was off to live in the USA for a couple of years

I didn’t describe Katherine Keating as a young girl , I repeated
Granys description of her.

But over 25 so her brain had fully developed