Epstein found unconscious in cell after ‘suicide attempt’
Jeffrey epstein was found passed out in his cell days after he was denied bail in an apparent suicide attempt.
Guards found the convicted paedophile semi- conscious on the floor in the foetal position.
However, there were suggestions it was merely a bid to get transferred to a softer jail.
US reports say epstein, who is accused of abusing dozens of underage girls, had marks around his neck and may have tried to hang himself. Prison officials are also investigating whether he could have been beaten up by another inmate.
But sources told news channel NBC the injuries were not serious and epstein may have been trying to get transferred out of the grim Metropolitan Correctional Centre. A lawyer for an inmate who is in the same unit as epstein told the Daily Mail it was the ‘worst prison I have ever seen’. Bruce Barket said a partner in his law firm saw epstein the day after the incident and he looked ‘pale and thin’.
Last week a judge rejected an £80million bail package offered by epstein’s lawyers, saying he was a danger to the community. On Monday his lawyers applied to appeal against the ruling. The next day epstein, 66, was found with the injuries and taken to hospital.
He was returned to jail later that day and put on suicide watch.
The prison has been likened to Guantanamo Bay because of its strict conditions. Previous inmates include Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘ el Chapo’ Guzman. financier epstein has a £44million mansion in New york, a £9million florida estate and his own Caribbean island called Little St James.
He is used to flying around the world on his private plane with frequent stops in Paris, where he has another home. Mr Barket represents Nicholas Tartaglione, a former New york policeman accused of becoming a drug gang killer. He and epstein languish in the ‘special housing unit’, which is home to 99 inmates deemed a security risk.
Mr Barket denied reports that Tartaglione beat up epstein. He said the New york jail was the ‘worst prison I have ever seen and it’s an inherently bad place’. Inmates are held for 23 hours a day in 8ft by 8ft cells. The remaining hour is spent in an exercise yard on the roof. Mr Barket said the jail was a ‘disaster from top to bottom’.
He added: ‘At times prisoners are kept for days in their cells because guards are too lazy to let them out. The place is infested with insects and rodents and there is black mould in the shower. Most of the cells have leaks so there is standing water in many of them. The medical care is virtually nonexistent.’
epstein is accused of molesting underage girls at his homes in New york and West Palm Beach between 2002 and 2005. He denies two charges of sex trafficking. Lawyers for epstein and a spokesman for the US Bureau of Prisons did not respond to requests for comment.
‘The worst prison I have ever seen’