The friends got here from internationally and from the best ranks of society: celebrities and scientists and members of royal households, touching down in a non-public jet after which boarding a helicopter to the island. Its proprietor favored to name it “Little St Jeff”; locals referred to as it “Paedophile Island”.
But what’s the reality about Little St James, the 75-acre personal paradise within the US Virgin Islands that billionaire intercourse abuser Jeffrey Epstein as soon as referred to as house?
The island is now on the centre of an online of lawsuits and legal investigations looking for to untangle the lifetime of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 on the age of 66 in what authorities claimed was a suicide.
A legal criticism from the lawyer normal of the US Virgin Islands, which is trying to grab Little St James as authorities property, described it “the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault”.
On this island, the criticism says: “Epstein and his associates could avoid detection of their illegal activity from Virgin Islands and federal law enforcement, and prevent these young women and underage girls from leaving freely and escaping the abuse.”
The island featured in Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking trial in December. She was convicted of 5 sex-trafficking prices and can be sentenced on Tuesday.
Here is every little thing we find out about Little St James and what Epstein did there.
Where is Jeffrey Epstein’s island and what’s it like?
Little St James is a small island fringed by coral reefs within the vibrant blue waters of the US Virgin Islands, with sheltered inlets and forested groves rising to dramatic windswept ridges and craggy cliffs. It lies simply off the south-eastern tip of St Thomas, one of many Caribbean archipelago’s three primary islands.
The Virgins have been bought from Denmark by the US authorities on the peak of the First World War with a view to cease them getting used as a German submarine base. Today many monetary consultants regard them as a tax haven, with enormous reductions on company tax and private revenue tax accessible to corporations based mostly there.
It was within the Virgins that Epstein registered as a intercourse offender in 2010, following his first conviction for little one prostitution in 2008. He additionally based mostly his shell corporations in a small unmarked workplace in a seaside strip mall on St Thomas, alongside a Sam’s Mini-Mart and a salon referred to as Happy Nails.
In 1998, he purchased Little St James from enterprise capitalist Arch Cummin through a shell firm, reportedly paying just below $8 million (£6 million). The new proprietor rapidly scoured away all of the native vegetation and changed it with 40-foot palm timber.
Starting in 2007, Epstein started an enormous programme of constructing and remodelling that drew suspicion from native officers. His primary compound practically doubled in dimension, sprouting into an opulent mansion with an out of doors terrace connecting the main bedroom and the swimming pool, together with a desalination system.
Satellite images present a sprawling community of terraces, cottages, seashore homes, swimming swimming pools, docks, utility buildings, a helipad, a tennis courtroom, slipways, some sort of enclosed lake or lagoon, and varied huts of unknown goal, all related by palm-lined roads the place golf buggies ferried friends from place to position (a journey throughout the island reportedly took about 5 minutes).
Stunning drone footage posted on YouTube presents a more in-depth look, with an enormous sundial on the centre of the island large enough to stroll round on and two tall American flags posted at reverse ends of the island.
At the opposite finish from Epstein’s manor is a squat, boxy blue and white striped construction also known as a “temple”, surrounded by a terrace with a crimson labyrinth motif. It beforehand had a golden dome and two gold statues on its roof, which have been reportedly torn off in Hurricane Maria.
The constructing differs significantly from Epstein’s unique planning allow for an octagonal music pavilion and has turn into a lightning rod for fevered hypothesis. Theorists have variously described it as the doorway to an underground lair, an altar to an Egyptian deity, a burial floor for his mother and father, or a website of formality sexual abuse, however an investigation by Business Insider concluded that it was almost certainly a non-public research and music room for Epstein.
In 2016, Epstein additionally purchased the neighbouring island of Great St James, about twice as massive at 165 acres, allegedly pretending that the true purchaser was a Dubai businessman named Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. “He wasn’t well received,” one St Thomas resident informed the Associated Press. “People think he’s too rich to be policed properly.”
What was life like on the island?
In the times earlier than his 2008 conviction, Epstein would go to Little St James two or 3 times a month, staying a number of days at a time. One former worker described it as “a Zen-like retreat” the place the financier would stroll round in flip-flops, with “meditative music” enjoying from audio system and the ladies typically sunbathing topless.
There have been at all times girls, after all: steadily engaging, generally suspiciously younger, on the arms of Epstein or one in all his many friends or, generally, ferried over in teams aboard a 38-foot boat referred to as the Lady Ghislaine, reportedly after Epstein’s longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The island had a employees of about 70, from groundskeepers and gardeners by laundry women to on-call boat captains. They wore black or white polo shirts and have been sworn to strict secrecy, with directions to remain out of Epstein’s sight when doing their work. They have been additionally forbidden to enter both of Epstein’s two workplaces in the principle manor, one in all which housed a intently guarded metal secure.
According to The LA Times, Epstein additionally had an enthusiasm for “pirate treasure”, his identify for outdated rum bottles and crockery discovered in regards to the island. He would pay servants between $100 and $1,000 for attention-grabbing finds in good situation.
“He was a very kind man and, while I don’t approve of things he’s been accused of, I liked him very much,” Miles Alexander, who collectively together with his spouse Cathy ran the island between 1999 and 2007, informed The Daily Mail. “Our job was about discretion. We have a clear conscience that we didn’t witness anything untoward.”
The South African couple described how Epstein didn’t prefer to eat meals in entrance of individuals, as a substitute taking snacks to eat in his room the place he would additionally obtain every day massages. Disturbing him there was “absolutely forbidden”, though they did as soon as discover a field of intercourse toys whereas he was out.
When they have been employed, the Alexanders say they have been informed: “What Jeffrey Wants, Jeffrey gets.”
Who did Epstein host on his island?
Of course there have been at all times friends. Among the well-known names reportedly hosted by Epstein have been theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel laureate Lawrence Krauss, comic Chris Tucker, actor Kevin Spacey, Victoria’s Secret magnate Les Wexner, mannequin Naomi Campbell, former Tony Blair aide Lord Peter Mandelsonand Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom.
It has been claimed that Bill Clinton was additionally a visitor, although he denies ever having been there. Donald Trump reportedly flew on one in all Epstein’s personal jets, however it’s unclear if he visited the island. The magician David Copperfield is even mentioned to have proposed to supermodel Claudia Schiffer there.
Guests would arrive on one in all Epstein’s Gulfstream jets at Cyril E King Airport on St Thomas, in a non-public space separate from the principle runway. They would then be shuttled to Little St James on one in all Epstein’s black helicopters.
Epstein was keen on treating the friends, reportedly paying for a submarine to be modified to offer a sea mattress tour to Professor Hawking, who had by no means been underwater earlier than. One former worker described it as “like a five star hotel where nobody paid”.
Cathy Alexander remembers Prince Andrew as one of many extra gracious guests, describing him as “great fun and very undemanding”. One day he returned from the seashore in “great mirth”: one in all his companions had stepped on a sea urchin and he had urinated on her foot to salve it.
Ms Alexander remembers him slipping her a $350 tip, which was “unexpected, because other guests didn’t”.
Didn’t anybody discover Epstein’s alleged intercourse trafficking?
Certainly they did. From the beginning, locals on St Thomas whispered darkly about Epstein’s actions, calling his personal jets “the Lolita Express”. When scuba divers swam close to the island, safety guards would reportedly seem to patrol the sting of the water.
At one level, Epstein was ferrying about 200 employees backwards and forwards on daily basis to construct his tasks. “When he was there, it was keep to yourself and do your thing,” one in all them informed the Associated Press, including that the mogul would generally give away outdated materials or surplus materials.
Airport employees on St Thomas might see who Epstein was bringing with him on the Express. “On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children,” a former air visitors controller informed Vanity Fair.
Prince Andrew: I stayed at convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein’s home as a result of I’m ‘too honorable’
“My colleagues and I positively talked about how we didn’t perceive how this man was nonetheless allowed to be round kids. We didn’t say something as a result of we figured legislation enforcement was doing their job. That is regrettable, however we actually didn’t even know who to inform, or if anybody actually cared.”
Another airstrip employee said: “There’d be girls that look like they could be in high school. They looked very young. They were always wearing college sweatshirts. It seemed like camouflage, that’s the best way to put it.
“I could see him with my own eyes. I compared it to seeing a serial killer in broad daylight. I called it the face of evil… It was like he was flaunting it.” Sometimes the girls would be carrying shopping bags from designer brands such as Gucci and Dior.
The Alexanders also grew suspicious. “They looked like they had stepped out of an underwear catalogue,” Cathy told The Mail. “They walked around with very few clothes on or lounged around by the pool with nothing on. It was like that most of the time. I was concerned about their ages. A few of them looked very young and I couldn’t help but wonder if their mothers knew where they were.”
Miles Alexander added that he had sometimes had to refuse Epstein’s requests to smuggle in female guests by boat without logging their names and passport numbers with the government of St Thomas.
The couple’s unease grew until they finally quit in 2007. “In our final meeting, [Epstein] told me I had always been his conscience,” Alexander said. “I’m certainly battling with my conscience now.”
What really happened on Epstein’s island?
That is the subject of multiple ongoing court cases, but the accusations are shocking.
According to a lawsuit filed by Prince Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Little St James was the centre of a worldwide grooming scheme in which recruiters working for Epstein targeted young women who were open to abuse and manipulation, played on their hopes and fears, dazzled them with “displays of vast weath and power” and then force them to have sex with clients while keeping them in line with threats and blackmail.
Ms Giuffre says that Prince Andrew sexually abused her on Little St James when she was 17, which the prince ”unequivocally denies”.
Andrew and Ms Giuffre settled her lawsuit against him on 15 February, bringing an end to the protracted legal case in New York court.
The Virgin Islands attorney general’s office makes similar claims, saying: “Between 2001 and 2019 the Epstein Enterprise transported underage girls and young women to the Virgin Islands, who were then taken via helicopter or private vessel to Little St James where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labour…
“To accomplish his illegal ends, Epstein formed an association with multiple defendants and others (both companies and individuals, who were willing to participate in, facilitate, and conceal Epstein’s criminal activity in exchange for Epstein’s bestowal of financial and other benefits, including sexual services and forced labour from victims.”
In fact, the complaint describes Little St James as just one step in a worldwide web of private flights that ferried sex trafficking victims to London, Paris, Tangier, Granada, St Louis, Palm Beach, Atlantic City and beyond. It says some victims were as young as 12.
Drone captures FBI raiding Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean home
The complaint also alleges that Little St James served as a prison for the victims, with Epstein controlling all communication with the outside world. It says one 15-year-old tried to escape by swimming, but Epstein organised a search party, recaptured her and confiscated her passport.
“Remember, he owns a whole island,” said attorney general Denise George in 2020. “So it wasn’t a situation where a child or a young woman would be able to just break away and run down the street to the nearest police station.”
One alleged victim told CBS News that she had been raped in Epstein’s office in St Thomas and that he had a gun strapped to the bedpost in his bedroom on Little St James. The complaint says Epstein kept a computerised list of underage girls in or near the Virgin Islands who could be brought to the island.
Why didn’t anyone do anything?
Authorities made several attempts to investigate Little St James. As a sex offender, Epstein was required to re-register every year and officials did try to visit the island in 2018 to verify his address.
But according to the attorney general’s complaint, Epstein refused the officers entry at the dock, claiming it was his “front door” and insisted on meeting them in his office on St Thomas. He also made employees sign confidentiality agreements that banned them from talking to law enforcement and required them to report any inquiries to Epstein.
“Monitoring a sex offender with his own private islands and the resources to fly victims in and out on private planes and helicopters represented unique challenges and allowed the Epstein Enterprise to limit scrutiny,” the complaint says.
In addition, both Little St James and Great St James are protected areas due to their coral reefs and wildlife. Local planning officials suspected Epstein of exceeding his building permits and the attorney general’s complaint says that he was fined thousands of dollars for breaking environmental rules, yet that kind of money was nothing to Epstein.
In fact, the complaint argues that Epstein’s purchase of Great St James was simply a ruse to hide what was happening on Little St James. “The Epstein Enterprise purchased the island for more than $20 million because participants wanted to ensure that it did not become a base from which others could view their activities or visitors,” it says.
“Epstein purchased these properties to further shield his conduct from view, prevent his detection by law enforcement or the public, and allow him to continue and conceal his criminal enterprise.”
What will occur to the island now?
The authorities of the US Virgin Islands has requested a decide to offer it management of Little St James and Great St James, together with all different property used to hold out the alleged intercourse trafficking operation.
Epstein’s executors are combating that request, saying they wish to use his property to arrange a aid fund for sexual assault victims. They need the Virgin Islands authorities to unfreeze his two islands to allow them to promote them off.
Ms George countered by accusing them of mismanaging the property and paying “for lawyers, landscaping, and helicopter fees, but not the brave women who have stepped forward to participate in the compensation fund”.
Meanwhile, Little St James has turn into a hotspot for morbid vacationers, “urban explorers” and social media influencers trying to entry the island and make movies. Travelers steadily ask about it and a few native boat operators make it a part of their excursions.
Vernon Morgan, a taxi driver on St Thomas, informed the Associated Press that he would slightly individuals left it alone. “It brought some kind of notoriety to the Virgin Islands,” he mentioned.
“We would much rather that the Virgin Islands be seen in a different light.”
This article was amended on 17 November 2021. It beforehand referred to the ‘comedian Steven Hawking’, however ought to after all have referred to the physicist Stephen Hawking.
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk