Three more women sue Epstein estate

Three more women sued the estate of Jeffrey Epstein this week, saying they were sexually abused by the financier both before and after the controversial deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution for sex crimes in 2007. According to a report in The Guardian, the new lawsuits, filed in Manhattan federal court, bring the number of civil cases against Epstein’s estate since his death in jail on 10 August to at least five. Two of the women who filed the suit this week say they met Epstein when they were 17. A third said she met him when she was 20. All describe being brought to Epstein’s home to provide massages and then being subjected to repeated, unwanted sex acts. Epstein was arrested on 6 July and pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of girls as young as 14. He died in his cell at the New York Metropolitan correctional centre. An autopsy report released last week concluded that he hanged himself. Two days before that, in a development first reported by the New York Post on Monday, Epstein signed a will placing his property, worth more than $577m, in a trust. Prosecutors have moved to dismiss the criminal indictment against Epstein but they have also said they were considering charging others with facilitating his alleged abuse of dozens of girls.