This archive report was first published on 10 August 2019.
Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy US financier, has committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on Saturday, August 10, 2019, according to US news media.
He had been denied bail last month after appearing in a New York court charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
Epstein had previously been convicted of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion and had served 13 months in a county jail before being released in 2009.
Prosecutors alleged that Epstein had sexually exploited dozens of underage teenagers, some as young as 14, at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.
