In this file photo taken on July 8, 2019, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffrey Epstein in New York City. — AFP: US financier Jeffrey Epstein, awaiting trial on charges he trafficked underage girls for sex, was found dead in jail Saturday of an apparent suicide, triggering outcry over how the high-profile detainee could die in custody.
On July 23, the 66-year-old was found unconscious with marks on his neck. He was put on suicide watch for six days before being returned to his cell in a high-security part of the jail, theHis death came one day after a New York court released a tranche of sealed legal documents, providing new details about what prosecutors allege was Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.
The Metropolitan Correctional Centre, a federal facility in Manhattan that often houses suspects awaiting or during trial, is considered one of the most secure penal establishments in the US. Virginia Giuffre, now an adult, claimed she was forced to have sex with well-known American political and business personalities. They have all denied the allegations.Prosecutors said Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.The young women were paid hundreds of dollars in cash to massage him, perform sexual acts and to recruit other girls, prosecutors alleged.
Epstein, whose friends included President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, was convicted previously of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion.Trump on Saturday retweeted a conspiracy theory alleging, without evidence, that Clinton may be connected with Epstein’s death.