Name: Epstein’s island was so horrific, one victim tried to swim away
Uploaded: 2026-03-15T16:39:52.000Z
Duration: 8 min 1 s
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Infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used the secluded island to both wine and dine the rich and build a trap where women and children as young as 12 describe rape, sexual abuse and trafficking.

The girls and young women who went on the island were basic prisoners.

A CNN review of thousands of videos, photos and emails in the DOJ files, written testimony from victims and satellite imagery paint the clearest picture yet of how Epstein transformed this island into an elaborate crime scene.

The files show the signs of abuse captured on camera.

Powerful guests publicly and repeatedly say they didn't see this abuse.

But it was so obvious and bold, according to one victim, that anyone spending significant at any of Epstein's residences would have clearly been aware of what was going on.

To do what he planned, Epstein used the island's seclusion.

My beach, helicopter or boat were the only way visitors could get to the island he purchased for about $8 million in 1998.

In 2002, satellite images show the island, Little St. James, was barely develop.

One main house here and a few small buildings on the northern tip of the roughly 70 acre island.

Over the next two decades, you can see Epstein's building spree as he transformed it into a luxurious vacation escape.

Expanding the main home to the north, he built a larger pool, new cabanas, upgraded rooms, a dental office for some unknown reason, and

this unusual looking building referred to in the files as a temple.

He also bought a $300,000 antique desk and statues worth about 100 gr.

As Epstein developed his getaway, he wrote repeatedly in emails to business and government leaders, Come visit me on my island.

Even after Epstein was convicted in 2008 for sex crimes, including one involving a minor, the visitors kept coming, like LinkedIn co founder Reid Hoffman, who explained on a podcast late last year that he briefly went to the island while fundraising for mit.

But beneath Epstein's business, Virgin Islands prosecutors say Epstein coerced girls as young as 12 into sexual activity.

One victim said she was trapped on the island.

I tried to escape Epstein and the others by trying to swim off after spending the day being raped.

Epstein's home decor even showed signs of his crimes.

There were bunk beds, and I said to him, he said, oh, my God, are you expecting grandchildren?

And he said, no, these are for the girls.

We spoke with architect and interior designer Robert Couturier.

He was hired by Epstein to work on the island.

He backed out of the project after a few months and then told the FBI, this is what Epstein instructed.

There had to be for girls, pink and these sorts of things.

I'm sorry, unless you are in some youth hostel somewhere.

But you don't have guest rooms with bunk beds for ladies.

And inside the house, there was another little room with computers.

And he said, this room is for the girls when they have fun and they play with their computers.

The whole house was very odd because we were on the beach and the house had heavy, dark curtains everywhere.

And he also asked me, he said, I want to build a big TV room, a movie cinema underneath the pool, and

Everybody knew what was happening on that island, even his staff.

A former staffer said the main home had many pictures of young girls, some topless, looking about 15 to 16 years old.

In room after room of the island home, the files show visible signs of something off, like Epstein in his kitchen chasing girls or young women.

A former chef said every hour Epstein would take a girl down to his master bedroom, then order his maid to clean up.

Another staffer worried about Epstein's guests.

He described seeing an unnamed man with girls who did not look 18 and they were all naked.

He also told the FBI he saw then Prince Andrew grinding against some young girl in the pool.

UK authorities arrested Andrew last month, saying they're reviewing claims he shared sensitive government information with Epstein.

Andrew was released and denies he did anything wrong.

Victim save visitors could have seen all this as early as the mid-2000s.

One victim described a 2007 visit by Google co founder Sergey Brin and then fiance and 23andMe co founder Ann Wojcicki.

They observed that we did not speak and that we remained mute.

Sergei and Anne witnessed our souls and bodies riddled with fear.

A man who looks like Brin, about the same age as he was in 2007, is seen in this picture in the DOJ files, though it is undated.

Former head of Victoria's Secret Les Wexner described his visit in a video deposition.

On that trip, do you recall seeing any prominent figures on the island?

It was a pretty crummy island after Epstein's 2008 sex crimes conviction.

An email shows the sultan from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed bin Sulayem.

The sultan separately traded lewd emails with Epstein, telling him he was going to sample a fresh 100% female Russian at my yacht.

Howard Lutnick, now Trump's commerce secretary, dropped by in 2012.

Lutnick said last month he saw nothing concerning we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour.

And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife all together.

What do you think about the people who did go to the island and say they never saw anything?

Listen, I think you can decide that you're blind.

You can decide that you only want to see what you want to see.

But the idea that a person would go to that island and not see something weird is impossible to me.

For me to have seen it, everybody else had to see it.

When you think back to how obvious it was to you, do you wonder about, you know, no one saying anything back then?

I've been wondering for the last 15 years if in 2010 I knew it and we all knew it and I was interrogated and nothing happened, and

that he died in 2019, having perpetrated more crimes from 2010 to 2019, and

that we could have saved so many young women that wouldn't have had to go through what they went through.