Today in New York 16 of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers “stood before a judge and poured out their anger toward the financier Tuesday, taking advantage of an extraordinary opportunity to be heard in court after his jailhouse suicide denied them the chance to testify against him at his sex-trafficking trial.”
The Associated Press covered the testimonies. One woman said Epstein raped her im his New York home when she was a 15-year-old aspiring actress. “He robbed me of my dreams, of my chance to pursue a career I adored” she said. She also said that never having the chance to face her predator “eats away” at her and was saddened “they let this man kill himself and kill the chance for justice for so many others.”
The laundry list of nauseating testimony was unending. The women described themselves as survivors recounting when they were “sexually abused by Epstein in Florida” at age 14. Another was only 15-years-old when she was “recruited to perform sex acts on Epstein” and his friends and colleagues.
In his opening remarks for the session, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, said Epstein’s suicide was a “rather stunning turn of events” and defending his decision to have the women speak in court saying, “Public hearings…promote transparency and provide the court with insights and information that the court might otherwise not be aware of.”
In the 2-and-a-half-hour court proceeding, “the women sometimes clutched on another to lend support…several cried…his suicide left some of them angry, others sad. One said she was relieved tht he was gone and could abuse no others.”
Continue Reading: Associated Press
