Women sue Epstein estate over alleged abuse material

Two women have filed a federal lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, alleging that images of them as children were found in Epstein’s collection of child sexual abuse material and asking a judge to create a court-supervised process to identify and notify others whose images may have been in his possession.

The complaint, filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks class-action status, unspecified monetary damages and an order requiring a “single, coordinated program” to identify and notify people whose “unlawful sexualized images” were allegedly part of Epstein’s collection.

The plaintiffs are identified in court papers only as Jane Doe and Amy. They allege that “few if any” of the people whose photos were in Epstein’s collection have been told the images are in the hands of federal investigators.

“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. It alleges that from the early 1990s until his death in 2019, Epstein and co-conspirators “created and participated in a multi-decade, vast CSAM conspiracy.”

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He was not charged with CSAM offenses.

The defendants are Darren Indyke, Epstein’s longtime lawyer, and Richard Kahn, his former accountant, in their capacities as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. NBC News reported that their lawyer, Daniel Weiner, declined to comment. The Guardian reported that attorneys for Indyke and Kahn, who have both said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes during their employment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The lawsuit says Epstein kept a “modeling book” in a locked safe at his New York City home containing “sexualized images of children.” It alleges that Epstein and unnamed co-conspirators claimed the images were for developing child models for Victoria’s Secret, but that the book contained nude or partially nude sexualized images of children. Similar allegations were previously raised in a lawsuit filed by Epstein survivor Maria Farmer against the government, which accused officials of failing to protect her and others from Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Jane Doe alleges she was about 12 when Epstein stole partially nude photographs of her that had been taken as part of an artist study and stored in a lockbox. The complaint says Epstein transported and retained the images across state lines, and that law enforcement was alerted at the time that Epstein had obtained those photos and similar images of another minor. “No one in law enforcement took action to prosecute anyone or even investigate these reports,” the lawsuit says.

Amy alleges that she is a victim of images that have circulated since the late 1990s, known as the “Misty” series. The complaint says those images “consistently appear in collections maintained by individuals who possess child pornography” and alleges, on information and belief, that images of Amy were among materials seized from Epstein’s properties.

Margaret Mabie of Marsh Law, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, told The Guardian that a report on Epstein’s collection identified 15 or more hits of known series like Amy’s and that “to our knowledge, none of the victims identified in that report, or in any other CSAM discovered in Epstein’s collection, have ever received notice.”

Hillary Nappi of AWK Survivor Advocate Attorneys said the lawsuit seeks “accountability and identification.”

“We want the Estate to preserve and account for everything seized from Epstein’s properties, and we want a real, court supervised process to identify and notify every survivor depicted in that collection,” Nappi said. “Many of them have no idea their images exist in his files, and they deserve to know, and they deserve the chance to seek justice.”

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children had no comment to NBC News on whether it has identified and contacted other women whose images were in Epstein’s possession.

Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 of recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring to sex traffic minors.