Epstein forced victims to perform semi-clothed catwalk auditions | UK | News
According to video evidence, Jeffrey Epstein forced some victims to attend runway auditions, apparently half-dressed.
The serial sex offender and pedophile, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial, received numerous video clips apparently showing young women and girls auditioning as models.
The videos, believed to have been seized from Epstein’s computer by US authorities, are among the last tranche of three million files released by the US justice department.
Officials are redacting all faces and identifying features ahead of last week’s release.
It remains unclear whether those filmed were Epstein’s victims, but in nearly all cases faces are blacked out and many show hushed voices protecting identities.
Victoria’s Secret trick revealed
The videos support theories that Epstein lured young girls by posing as a Victoria’s Secret talent scout, a tactic he employed with model Alicia Arden, whom he attacked in Santa Monica in 1997.
The footage also reveals the global reach of his operation, with videos of young women filmed from locations around the world appearing in his inbox.
One of them was taking a selfie video in front of the mountain range, while the other was speaking Russian to a man who was filming her in the backseat of the car.
Podium style displays
In one of the clips, a potential victim is seen wearing high heels and bare legs, posing with her hand on her hip.
In another video, a young woman approaches the camera as if she were on the catwalk, but her exact outfit remains unclear due to redactions.
Additional clips show the girls positioned in front of the artwork; in one of them, a man with an Australian accent instructs them to “look a little happier” while posing in what appears to be a private apartment or house.
Another shows a girl posing in black tights and sneakers in front of an 1889 Russian oil painting called Morning in a Pine Forest in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery.
Other videos show Epstein’s dirty operation; these include footage of a victim dancing provocatively in black stockings and tinsel to a rendition of Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, as well as another video taking a topless selfie video in her underwear.
The two women appear to have been captured in the red-paneled study of Epstein’s Paris home while others filmed themselves in front of mirrors; it is the center of a criminal investigation into nearly six possible charges of rape and sexual abuse, including of minors.
Ms Arden has previously revealed the financier, who posed as a Victoria’s Secret talent scout in the late nineties, lured her to his hotel room for an “audition” and groped her there.
Before her death, she reported to The New York Times in 2019 that he invited her to audition for his lingerie brand’s catalog, but when she arrived he tried to undress her and told her he wanted to “make fun of her.”
She ran away in tears and reported the incident to the police the next day and again a week later; Her testimony remains among the earliest known police records regarding sexual abuse allegations against Epstein.
Wexner connection
Although the financier never worked for the famous lingerie group, which has produced numerous famous supermodels, he maintained a close relationship with Leslie Wexner, an American billionaire and then chairman of parent company L Brands.
Mr. Wexner never faced charges of malfeasance, but the filings reveal that he was accused of stealing millions from Epstein’s fortune before striking a private deal to repay $100 million.
Epstein also used French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was hanged in his prison cell in 2022, for allegedly helping to obtain “more than a thousand” women.
The late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a longtime accuser of Epstein, alleged in court filings that Brunel brought young girls to the United States on model visas.
She stated that the girls were later “farmed” by her to Epstein and others for sex, and also claimed that she was forced to have sex with Brunel on multiple occasions while at Epstein’s home.
Model rape allegation
Former model Thysia Huisman told The Times earlier this week that she was drugged and raped by Brunel in Paris in the summer of 1991, when she was just 18 years old.
He recalled meeting Epstein at a party with Brunel, where the financier’s friend, then a modeling agent, told him that “he was a big fan of yours” and “thought you had a lot of potential.”
Huisman, now a television producer and sexual assault survivor activist, described the impact of Epstein’s unwelcome words: “Immediately the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.”
In an audio clip from the latest batch of files, an unnamed British woman who sounds like Ghislaine Maxwell is asked by authorities: “Did you ever tell anyone that Mr. Epstein was a scout for Victoria’s Secret?”
He replied: “I don’t remember ever saying that.”
