In a shocking revelation, a BBC investigation has confirmed that sex-criminal financier Jeffrey Epstein housed women he allegedly abused in several London flats in the years following a lack of police investigation in the UK.
The investigation uncovered evidence of four London flats located in affluent boroughs like Kensington and Chelsea, through receipts, emails, and bank records from the Epstein files. Six of the women who lived in these flats have since come forward as victims of Epstein's abuse.
Many of these women, primarily from Russia and eastern Europe, were brought to the UK after the Metropolitan Police decided not to pursue an investigation into Virginia Giuffre's 2015 allegations of international trafficking to London.
The Metropolitan Police stated they had conducted 'reasonable lines of inquiry' at the time, having interviewed Giuffre multiple times and cooperating with US investigators.
Emails from the investigation revealed that some of the women housed in these London flats were coerced by Epstein to recruit additional victims for his trafficking network. They were also regularly transported to Paris to meet him.
Through extensive research of millions of pages of records from the US Department of Justice, the BBC pieced together a detailed account of Epstein's operation in the UK, illustrating a broader extent of his activities than previously known. The operation was characterized by not only more victims but established infrastructure and frequent cross-border transportation of women, persisting until his death.
The investigation highlights missed opportunities for British police to open inquiries into Epstein's activities, especially in response to Giuffre's allegations that she was trafficked and assaulted by Prince Andrew in 2001, an allegation that Prince Andrew has consistently denied.
The BBC refrained from publishing details about the young women involved to maintain their anonymity as victims of sexual abuse.
Investigators found that Epstein continued using the Eurostar train service to move women between the UK and France up until his arrest, with a concerning increase in ticket purchases during his final years. At least 53 tickets for young women were traced from 2011 to 2019, with many purchased after Giuffre's complaint in 2015. Notably, one woman was transported to London just days before Epstein's arrest.
The ongoing investigation has prompted calls from victims and human rights advocates for a public inquiry into Epstein's trafficking network and the failures of law enforcement to act on credible allegations of human trafficking.
