Disgraced US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, facing a charge of sex trafficking of minors in New York has committed suicide.
Reports quoting law enforcement officers said the 66 year-old paedophile committed suicide in his cell in a Manhattan jail on Saturday morning. His body was wheeled out and taken to a New York hospital around 7.30am.
The incident comes two weeks after the billionaire was found “injured and in a fetal position” on the floor of his cell, with injuries to his neck.
He was then placed on suicide watch as a result.
Epstein, a hedge fund billionaire who had ties to top politicians and celebrities, was charged on 8 July with sexually exploiting dozens of young girls.
Epstein was arrested at an airport in New Jersey after returning to the United States from Paris on a private jet.
In an indictment unsealed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, he was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
The charge accused him of abusing dozens of young girls at his properties in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, some of them as young as 14.
Aside from the offences alleged, rumours circulated of further child abuse at Epstein’s private Carribean island, according to additional court documents unsealed on Friday.
