Epstein’s a ‘serial’ sex pest

Prosecutors oppose bail for under-fire financier

NEW YORK: Federal prosecutors have urged a judge to keep financier Jeffrey Epstein behind bars until his trial on sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls, calling him a “serial sexual predator” and expressing concern he might try to influence witnesses.

Prosecutors submitted written arguments in advance of a bail hearing tomorrow, saying he faces “the very real possibility” of spending the rest of his life in prison amid a “shocking lack of understanding” of the gravity of his crimes.

They said he had a history of obstruction and manipulation of witnesses, and victims had told prosecutors they might be harassed or abused if he were freed.

“The defendant is a serial sexual predator who is charged with abusing underage girls for years,” prosecutors wrote.

“And any doubt that the defendant is unrepentant and unreformed was eliminated when law enforcement agents discovered hundreds or thousands of nude and semi-nude photographs of young females in his Manhattan mansion on the night of his arrest, more than a decade after he was first convicted of a sex crime involving a juvenile.”

Prosecutors said evidence against Epstein had grown since his arrest after several additional women identified themselves as victims and dozens of individuals called prosecutors to convey information about Epstein.

They said victims supported his detention and they knew of no victim supportive of bail.

They said he posed a “tremendous risk of flight and a danger to the community”.

The filing came a day after defence lawyers argued that Epstein should be given bail and confined to his $77 million Manhattan mansion with electronic monitoring.

Epstein pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges alleging he recruited and abused dozens of underage girls at his mansions in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, in the early 2000s.