Two women filed a federal lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, claiming their photographs were found in his vast collection of child pornography.
Identified in court papers only as Jane Doe and Amy, the women allege that “few if any” of those whose photos were in Epstein’s collection were informed that these photographs are in the hands of federal investigators.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, seeks class-action status and is asking for unspecified damages and requesting the court to “design and supervise a single, coordinated program for identifying and notifying” the other women whose “unlawful sexualized images” were part of Epstein’s collection.
“One of Epstein’s most horrific but often overlooked crimes was his possession, transportation, production, and distribution of child pornography and/or child sexual abuse material (together ‘CSAM’) of countless children,” the lawsuit says.
“Beginning in the early 1990s until his death in 2019, Epstein, along with his co-conspirators, created and participated in a multi-decade, vast CSAM conspiracy,” it says.
The lawsuit alleges that Epstein kept a “modeling book” containing “sexualized images of children” in a locked safe. No CSAM charges were filed against Epstein, and according to the lawsuit, Epstein and unnamed co-conspirators alleged the images “were for the purposes of developing child models for Victoria’s Secret.”
“This lawsuit holds Jeffrey Epstein’s estate accountable for a crime that has never been fully addressed on its own terms,” one of the accusers’ lawyers, Hillary Nappi of AWK Survivor Advocate Attorneys, said in an emailed response to questions.
Named as defendants in their capacities as co-executors of Epstein’s estate are his longtime lawyer Darren Indyke andaccountant Richard Kahn. Their lawyer, Daniel Weiner, declined to comment.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, where he was jailed while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Allegations that Epstein and co-conspirators “created what they referred to as a‘modeling book’” were previously mentioned in a lawsuitEpstein survivor Maria Farmerfiledagainst the government. Her case alleges that the government failed to protect her and others from Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Although they claimed that the ‘book’ was for the purposes of developing child models for Victoria’s Secret, the book contained nude or partially nude sexualized images of children,” the lawsuit filed Tuesday says.
Jane Doe says in the lawsuit that she was around 12 years old when “Epstein stole partially nude photographs of her” that were “taken as part of an artist study.”
“In Epstein’s possession and given the manner in which he obtained, catalogued, and retained them alongside a collection of sexualized images of children, the Jane Doe Images constituted a lascivious exhibition” that Epstein took with him across state lines, the lawsuit says.
“Despite contemporaneous reports made to law enforcement, specifically alerting law enforcement that Epstein had obtained these photos of Jane Doe, and similar photos of another minor, no one in law enforcement took action to prosecute anyone or even investigate these reports,” it says.
Meanwhile, pornographic photographs of Amy have been in circulation since the 1990s, the lawsuit says.
