Months before his death in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was still ferrying young women to his secluded Caribbean retreat. Newly released images have now pulled back the curtain on the sinister paradise where scores of underage girls were allegedly trafficked and abused.
The Sinister Sanctuary: Inside Little St James
In December, Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee released hundreds of previously unseen photographs and four videos of Epstein's 28-hectare private island in the US Virgin Islands. The financier fondly called his home away from home Little St Jeff's, but locals had far darker nicknames: ‘Island of Sin’, ‘Paedophile Island’, and 'Orgy Island'.
The images reveal peculiar details of the estate. They show a dentist’s room with masks fixed to the wall, a photograph of a man’s hand holding a smaller, feminine hand, and a chalkboard scrawled with cryptic words like ‘truth’, ‘deception’ and ‘power’. While not immediately revealing secrets, the photos offer a chilling glimpse into Epstein's world.
Robert Garcia, the committee's Democratic leader, described the cache as a "disturbing look" into Epstein's island, released to ensure public transparency and help piece together the full picture of his horrific crimes.
A Perfect Hideaway for Abuse
Epstein purchased Little St James in April 1998 for $7.95 million through a company called L.S.J. LLC. Located just over a mile from St. Thomas, the island was remote, accessible only by sea or air. According to a 2020 lawsuit brought by the Virgin Islands government, this made it "the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault".
Victims and guests would arrive on one of Epstein's Gulfstream jets at Cyril E King Airport on St Thomas. They were then shuttled to the island via a black helicopter or aboard a 38-foot vessel named the ‘Lady Ghislaine,’ after his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. The island's main compound included a stone mansion, four guest villas, a helipad, private dock, two pools, three beaches, a gym, and even a tiki hut.
The isolation was absolute. One 15-year-old victim previously described attempting to escape by swimming, only to be captured and have her passport confiscated.
Famous Visitors and a Legacy of Secrecy
For years, rumours have swirled about the rich and famous figures who accepted invitations to the island. Flight logs and reports have mentioned visits from Lord Peter Mandelson, former Barclays boss Jes Staley, and the former Duke of York, Prince Andrew. All deny any wrongdoing and insist they were unaware of Epstein's criminal behaviour.
Virginia Giuffre, a key accuser who died in 2024, claimed in a civil suit that Prince Andrew abused her on the island, which she dubbed ‘orgy island’. In her posthumous memoir, she described an episode with Epstein, Andrew, and approximately eight other young girls who "appeared to be under the age of 18". Prince Andrew has consistently denied the allegations.
Employees on St Thomas were aware of the disturbing pattern. An anonymous airstrip worker told Vanity Fair they had an inside joke: "How many kids are on board this time?" The worker compared watching Epstein to witnessing a ‘serial killer in broad daylight’, as he sauntered without shame despite being on the island’s sex offender registry.
Attempts to Move On: A Resort Haunted by the Past
Following Epstein's death, his estate settled with the Virgin Islands in 2022, agreeing to pay at least $105 million. The Caribbean properties were then sold for $60 million to investor Stephen Deckoff, founder of Black Diamond Capital Management, with a portion of the proceeds funding the settlement.
Deckoff announced ambitious plans to transform the islands into a 25-room, world-class luxury resort, aiming to bolster tourism and create jobs. A press release stated he intended to open in 2025. However, recent reports suggest development has stalled. The Virgin Islands government confirmed no planning applications have been submitted, and local tour operators have seen no evidence of construction. Satellite images show the islands remain largely unchanged since Epstein's death.
The central question lingers: can this location, so deeply associated with horrific crimes, ever truly escape its past? Will future tourists be willing to visit, or will the spectre of what transpired there forever haunt its pristine beaches?
The release of these images followed a larger dump of 300,000 pages of Epstein-related files by the US Department of Justice in December, though many were heavily redacted. The search for full transparency and justice for the victims continues, even as the physical site of their suffering faces an uncertain future.
