Billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein commits suicide in Manhattan jail - report

The billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has committed suicide in Manhattan jail, according to ABC News. The media organization, citing three three law enforcement officials, reported that Jeffery has died by suicide in his Lower Manhattan jail cell the federal lockup where he had been held pending trial on federal sex trafficking charges. It has been reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would investigate the apparent suicide.

BREAKING: Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide overnight in his Lower Manhattan jail cell – the federal lockup where he had been held pending trial on federal sex trafficking charges, three law enforcement officials told @ABC News. https://t.co/h0xLCqIEbT

— ABC News (@ABC) August 10, 2019

Attorney General William P. Barr said in a statement "I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody. Mr. Epstein’s death raises serious questions that must be answered. In addition to the FBI’s investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector General who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein’s death."

Statement from Attorney General William P. Barr on the Death of Jeffrey Epstein https://t.co/IdTt0sEfGj

— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) August 10, 2019

The exact timing and circumstances were not immediately clear. Epstein, 66, was accused of sexually abusing dozens of minor girls in New York and Florida and was supposed to face trial next year. 

Epstein was found semiconscious with marks on his neck in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on July 23 and since then he was kept on a suicide watch.

Until his conviction for sex crimes in 2008, Epstein was a well-connected multimillionaire who moved among the financial, political, and cultural elite of society.

In 2005, the Palm Beach police in Florida began investigating Epstein after a parent complained that he molested her 14-year-old daughter. Epstein eventually pleaded guilty and was convicted in a Florida state court in 2008 of soliciting a prostitute and of procuring an under-18 girl for prostitution. He served 13 months in custody with work release, as part of a plea deal, where federal officials had identified 36 girls as young as 14 years old who had been molested.

Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.