Jeffrey Epstein, the late American financier and convicted sex offender, housed women who said he abused them in flats across London in the years after British police decided not to pursue an investigation, the BBC reported on Friday.
Citing evidence from receipts, emails and bank records shared in Epstein’s files, the report said at least four flats were rented in Kensington and Chelsea where the six women who now allege they were abused said they were housed by a convicted sex offender.
Earlier this week, a CNN report revealed that multiple women had accused multiple men of sexual abuse; However, Epstein’s files show little effort by investigators to pursue leads.
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Women trafficked from Russia, Eastern Europe to UK
Most of these women were brought to the UK from Russia, Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. It comes after the Metropolitan Police decided not to investigate allegations made by Virginia Giuffre in 2015 that she was a victim of international human trafficking to London.
Police noted that they followed “reasonable lines of inquiry” at the time, interviewing Giuffre several times after her complaint and cooperating with U.S. investigators.
Victims forced Epstein to recruit more
The emails also suggest that some of these women, who were housed in flats across London, were coerced by Epstein to recruit others to join his sex-trafficking network and were allegedly regularly flown to Paris on the Eurostar to meet him.
To build the most detailed picture yet of his UK operations, the BBC reviewed millions of pages of records collected by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and released as part of the Epstein files.
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Epstein’s UK Network
The investigation revealed how his operation had become more extensive than previously known, with more victims, an infrastructure in place, including housing, and the regular cross-border movement of women, which continued until Epstein’s death, despite warnings from British police.
It also revealed that British police had other chances to open an investigation into Epstein’s activities and his network in the country, along with Giuffre’s complaint that she was trafficked and forced into sexual activities with former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in 2001.
Another woman came forward in early 2020 to say that Epstein abused her in the UK. However, it remains unclear whether her complaint was investigated or not.
Months before his arrest for child sex trafficking, Epstein allegedly Skyped with a young Russian woman who lived in one of those apartments. He sent her a picture now missing from the files, but he believed it was his photo, prompting the woman to jokingly ask who the handsome man in the picture was. The woman also asked him to pay for her English courses in London and to help buy cutlery and furniture for the flat. She also requested visa advice for another Russian woman to come and stay.
Despite its prestigious location, the apartments were sometimes overcrowded and women were forced to sleep on couches. The emails show that Epstein sometimes reacted angrily when they complained about living conditions.
The emerging picture raises difficult questions for authorities and points to potential gaps in control that allowed Epstein’s UK network to operate for longer than previously known. As more details surface, attention is likely to focus not only on the extent of his activities, but also on whether earlier intervention could have changed their course.
