https://www.sexualassault.co.uk/Epstein-Transcript-943-pages.pdf
Transcripts of the 2006 grand jury investigation released on Monday indicate that Florida prosecutors received thorough information of how late businessman and banker Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted young women two years prior to their agreement on a plea deal.
After media stories revealing how Epstein’s links to the wealthy and powerful seemed to have allowed him to continue raping and sex trafficking teenage girls without serving a significant jail sentence, the transcripts became the centre of a legal battle for almost ten years.
The judge had planned a hearing next week to decide when and how to release the roughly 150 pages, so his decision surprised him. In February, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation allowing the release on Monday or wherever circuit judge Luis Delgado advised.
Records state that the grand jury heard accounts of Epstein, then in his thirties, mistreating young girls as young as 14 at his Palm Beach home. The young people said investigators they were paid to locate more girls as well.
Jeffrey Epstein, a paedophile and rapist
“The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from mildly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal.”
Following the grand jury inquiry, Epstein settled with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 allowing him to escape more severe federal charges and instead enter a guilty plea to state charges of acquiring a person under eighteen for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.
He spent one and a half years in Palm Beach County jail after being sentenced, then underwent house arrest. He had to register under sexual offender classification.
Many have denounced that accord as too modest.
The transcripts state that Palm Beach Police Detective Joe Recarey testified in July 2006 that the first investigation started when a woman reported in March 2005 that her stepdaughter, who was in high school at the time, claimed she paid $300 (£237) for “sexual activity with a man in Palm Beach”.
Another teenage girl whose name was omitted from the transcript told police she was 17 years old when she was approached by a friend offering her $200 for a massage at Epstein’s house.
An Epstein servant took the child to a room at the residence, and Epstein showed up soon afterward asking that she take off her clothes. She agreed and started the massage.
She objected when Epstein tried to touch her. Then Epstein promised to pay her should she bring other “girls” to his house. Det Recarey said of an October 2005 interview she agreed to do with researchers.
And he advised her, “The younger, the better.”
Epstein told her a friend she brought over, 23, was too old. The investigator said the child finally invited six friends from her high school to Epstein’s house, including a 14-year-old female.
The child, who likened herself to Hollywood’s Madame Heidi Fleiss and detectives, said the girls knew what they were getting into. She got $200 every time she brought a friend over, and Epstein paid for the rental car.
“The more you did, the more money you made,” the detective said to the teenage informant. “She clarified that you would have to offer the massage either topless or naked since there was going to be some possible touching as well.”
After the Miami Herald ran a series of stories rekindling public interest in the case, including interviews with some victims who had filed civil lawsuits against Epstein, he was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in New York in 2018 — where he also owned an abusive mansion.
Federal authorities claim that 66-year- Epstein, 66 killed himself in a New York City jail cell in August 2019.
Judge Delgado called Epstein “the most infamous paedophile in American history,” in his order.
“For almost 20 years, the story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimised some of Palm Beach County’s most vulnerable has been the subject of much anger and has at times diminished the public’s view of the criminal justice system,” he said.
“Epstein is indeed notorious and infamous and is widely reported to have flounced his wealth while cavorting with politicians, billionaires and even British royalty,” he said.
“It is reasonable that given those reports the public has great curiosity about what was widely reported by news (agencies) as “special treatment” regarding his prosecution.”
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