Daily Mail - 12.08.2019

Page 10 QQQ Daily Mail, Monday, August 12, 2019

WHY WAS HE AL

Black and white

television

with limited

programmes

A CELL IN THE

NOTORIOUS

NEW YORK

PRISON Double doors

for security

and added

feeling of

isolation

Sink, mirror and

toilet in a combined

stainless steel unit

Fixed concrete

stool, desk and

bed platform

Paper sheets

which cannot be

used as a ligature

Flexible

rubber pen which

cannot be used

as a weapon

BROOKLYNBROOKLYN

MANHATTANMANHATTAN

NEW YORKNEW YORK

Correctional

Centre

Battery

Park

Wall St

Shower

has a

timer to

prevent

flooding

Four inch

wide window

From Daniel Bates in New York

and Emily Kent Smith in San Francisco

÷ Epstein’s former friend Donald

Trump retweeted an unsubstanti-

ated claim that Bill Clinton may

have been involved in the death.

Manhattan attorney Geoffrey

Berman pledged to continue with

his prosecution last night, adding:

‘To those brave young women who

have already come forward and to

the many others who have yet to...

our investigation of the conduct

charged in the indictment – which

included a conspiracy count –

remains ongoing.’

A civil forfeiture claim is expected

to be made this week against

Epstein’s estate, which is thought

to be worth at least £415million.

Epstein was found at 6.30am on

Saturday by a guard at New York’s

Metropolitan Correctional Center.

The day before, New York’s fed-

eral court had released 2,000 pages

of damning documents, with thou-

sands more due to be made public.

The FBI, Department of Justice

and the New York City Medical

Examiner’s office are investigating

what happened at the jail, which is

meant to be one of the most secure

places in the world. A series of

errors allowed Epstein to become

the first suicide there in 21 years.

Officials said Epstein, 66, was

placed on suicide watch after he

tried to kill himself on July 23.

But on July 29 he was taken off

suicide watch and returned to the

9 South special housing unit, which

has less stringent security, The

New York Times reported.

The jail promised the Depart-

ment of Justice that Epstein would

have a cellmate, and a guard would

look into his cell every 30 minutes.

Instead, he was left alone and

nobody checked on him the night

he died. The two guards on duty

were both working overtime. One

was working his fifth day of over-

time and the other had been forced

to work beyond his usual hours.

Officials said that had Epstein

remained under suicide watch it

would have been extremely hard

for him to kill himself. Suicide

watch cells have windows for

guards to make visual checks, the

bed is bolted down and there are

no proper bed clothes that can be

used to form a ligature.

Inmates are given a daily psychi-

atric evaluation, and a guard,

known as an inmate observer, is in

an office next door to monitor the

inmate constantly on CCTV.

Bureau of Prisons regulations

lawyers, said there was ‘no way

that this guy was not eventually

going to kill himself ’, adding: ‘Jef-

frey didn’t want for anything, the

cars, the planes, the boats, the

island, the homes here, the homes

there, the girls. That’s his life, he

cannot live in a concrete cell.

‘He figured he was going to do at

least ten years... and he would say,

“My life’s over”.’

Attorney General William Barr,

was said to be ‘livid’ when told of

Epstein’s death, and said ‘serious

questions must be answered’.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio

tweeted: ‘Jeffrey Epstein may have

escaped his day in court, but if the

wealthy predators involved in his

sex ring think they just got away

with it, they’re WRONG.

‘We won’t stop fighting for justice

for every single victim.’

Julie Brown, the Miami Herald

reporter whose stories put the

Epstein case back under the spot-

light, said his victims felt ‘robbed’

by his death, adding: ‘This is

another betrayal, not only by him

but also by the system.’

Among those accused of being

involved in the recruitment of

underage girls by Epstein is Miss

Maxwell, the British daughter of

the late media tycoon Robert Max-

well, who was said yesterday to be

co-operating with prosecutors.

She has been described as the

‘madam of the house’ at his man-

sion in Florida by a former house-

keeper. Miss Roberts has alleged

that Miss Maxwell took part in sex

sessions as well.

Professor Thomas Volscho, from

City University of New York, who is

writing a book about Epstein, said

Miss Maxwell had become ‘target

No1’ for prosecutors, adding: ‘They

are going to want to hold somebody

to account and there is going to be

enormous pressure on Maxwell. I

would imagine she is petrified.’

Miss Maxwell denies the claims

against her.

JEFFREY Epstein was able to take

his own life thanks to a catalogue

of failures at the high security

prison where he was being held, it

emerged last night.

In a breach of procedure, his cellmate

was moved out, leaving him alone, and

guards did not check on him every 30

minutes as they should have, meaning

he was able to hang himself.

US authorities vowed to continue investi-

gating Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking of

underage girls, meaning those accused of

helping him could still face charges.

Associates who could face questioning

include Prince Andrew, who has been

accused of having sex with one of Epstein’s

‘slaves’, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and

Leslie Wexner, the founder of the company

that owns Victoria’s Secret.

Yesterday, calls grew for heads to roll at

the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which was

responsible for Epstein’s security.

In other developments:

÷ The Royal Family rallied around Prince

Andrew, who denies claims against him, as

he attended church at Balmoral with the

Queen in his first public outing since

Epstein’s death;

÷ Ghislaine Maxwell, a former friend of

Andrew’s, reportedly began co-operating

with the FBI and giving details of her

alleged recruitment of girls for Epstein;

÷ Epstein’s death sparked conspiracy the-

ories online, with many speculating his

associates may have been implicated;

÷ Attorneys for Epstein’s victims vowed to

pursue his estate for compensation;

÷ Virginia Roberts, an alleged sex slave,

who claimed she was loaned out to Andrew,

called the suicide ‘cowardly and shameful’;

You have sheets, but they’re paper level,

not strong enough. He was 200 pounds –

it would never happen.’

The ex-inmate said that Epstein could

not have hanged himself from the bed

because you can’t move the frame, and

there are no light fixtures and no bars to

which a ligature could be attached.

He added: ‘When you’re on suicide

watch, they put you in this white smock,

a straight jacket. They know a person

cannot be injurious to themselves.

There’s a cop at the door every nine

minutes, whether you’re on suicide

watch or not.’

The former prisoner also claimed that

some of the guards in the MCC are ‘on a

major power trip’ and added: ‘If they see

that the guy is breaking, they’re going to

help you break. It’s my firm belief that

Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide. It

just didn’t happen.’

DEATH OF A PREDATOR

‘This is another

betrayal’

state that it ‘takes only three to

four minutes for many suicide

deaths to occur’.

The investigation will likely focus

on blunders at the jail and whether

Epstein managed to persuade the

guards to look the other way.

Mike Fisten, a private investiga-

tor hired by one of the victims’

IT looks like an ordinary 1970s office

block from the outside, but the prison

where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead

has been described as a ‘mini Guantan-

amo Bay’ because it is so tough.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center,

or MCC, in downtown Manhattan houses

774 inmates including terrorists and

multiple murderers.

Epstein was held on the 9 South special

housing unit for high profile prisoners.

Inmates are kept in their tiny cells for

23 hours a day, the lights are kept on all

the time and prisoners are only rarely

allowed outside – in a cage on the roof.

The notorious unit is said to be infested

with rats and cockroaches, and New

York defence lawyer Bruce Barket, who

has represented prisoners who were

held in the MCC, has described it as a

‘disaster from top to bottom’.

Others have called it a ‘kennel’, and

one former inmate at the prison told the

New York Post that it would have been

‘impossible’ for Epstein to have hanged

himself in his cell.

The man, who was also housed in 9

South, said: ‘Between the floor and the

ceiling is like eight or nine feet. There’s

no way for you to connect to anything.

From Daniel Bates

Behind bars: Jeffrey Epstein’s mugshot

‘Mini-Guantanamo’ where

the lights never go out

÷String of failures

at Epstein jail

before hanging

÷Conspiracy

theorists say he

was murdered

V