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A woman who claimed she was a sex trafficking victim said she was in such desperation while being held captive on Jeffrey Epstein‘s private Caribbean island that she devised a plan to swim in shark-infested waters to escape from the abuse.
Sarah Ransome, who was born in South Africa to British parents, alleges that she was introduced to Epstein in 2006 after being approached by a woman in a New York City nightclub. Ransome, who was 22-years-old at the time, was lured by a woman to take a trip to Little St. James, Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island near St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“She found out everything about me very quickly. I was so broken; I was an open book. It was like: ‘there’s this amazing guy, a philanthropist, this wealthy guy, he’s amazing, he’s helped me so much, he’s helped me achieve my dreams, he can help you,’” Ransome said of Epstein’s female recruiter. Upon first meeting Epstein, she said the disgraced financier “was so charming, charismatic.”
Ransome was invited to go to the island and transportation would be provided by Epstein’s private jet. Epstein’s private Boeing 727 plane is a midsize, three-engine commercial jet airliner. Ransome told the Telegraph that she was “young and naive” in September of 2006 and agreed to go on the trip.
There are numerous allegations that Epstein used his private jet to transport women, some underage, to his residences in the Caribbean, Manhattan, Paris, and Palm Beach. After the years of allegations of predatory behavior towards young women and the 2008 conviction of procuring underage girls for prostitution, the plane was nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”
“I had no idea of the hornet’s nest I had walked into,” Ransome said of boarding the private jet.
There were other young women on the flight along with Epstein, according to Ransome. “During the duration of the flight, everyone had fallen asleep. But I am a complete insomniac on planes. And they started having full-on, hardcore sex on the bed, one of the girls and Jeffrey,” she claims. “There was no privacy. They did it in front of everyone.”
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Ransome said the raunchy flight was just the beginning of the things that would come. “And from the time I got onto the island that was when the abuse began,” the woman said.
Ransome was summoned to give Epstein a “massage,” which is the same way the convicted pedophile initiated sexual contact according to other victims.
The alleged sex trafficking victim said she was stuck on the island where she claims “there were some days I was raped three times a day.” Ransome said she had to be readily available for Epstein’s friends, who he “lent us out to.”
Epstein, who had a net worth of between $500 million to $1 billion, operated shady financial companies. There are many theories that Epstein ran a Ponzi scheme or was blackmailing influential people to accumulate his wealth. Ransome said that she “never saw him do a day’s work” in the six months that she was trapped on the island. “He was literally sexually abusing us all day long,” she claims.
Ransome said that she did see Epstein’s alleged fixer, Ghislaine Maxwell on the island. She noted that Epstein and Maxwell were more like friends or siblings rather than a couple. “Ghislaine was the socialite. She made Jeffrey look good,” she said. Ransome added that Jeffrey was “quite socially awkward.”
Ransome claimed that she was a sex slave and the abuse allegedly got so severe that she planned an ambitious escape from the place known as “Pedophile Island” and was willing to swim in shark-infested waters to flee.
“I had been raped three times that day,” Ransome told the Telegraph. “A shark would have been my best friend at that point. I didn’t even think about it – it was just, get me away.”
Sarah Ransome, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein's predation, says that after she was raped three times in one day she tried to escape his island by swimming through shark-infested waters. https://t.co/4S1l59cT5l
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 16, 2019
Ransome claimed that she jumped on an ATV with the plan of driving to the beach and swimming from Little Saint James to the nearby island of St. Thomas, which is miles away and would have been a dangerous journey with or without sharks. However, Epstein’s security cameras allegedly caught her on video trying to escape. Epstein’s security team stopped her from escaping the 70-acre private island, often called “Orgy Island.”
Last month, Epstein’s private island was raided by FBI agents and they confiscated numerous items including computers from his luxury estate. Drone footage of Epstein’s compound shows a bizarre gold-domed “temple” that was recently built on the island.
But seriously, what's up with this weird temple thing on Jeffrey Epstein's private island? pic.twitter.com/njxfg2HahN
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) July 9, 2019
Ransome said she finally escaped Epstein in early 2007 when he sent her to look for a young personal assistant. She allegedly didn’t want to put another woman through the same abuse that she had reportedly endured.
In 2017, Ransome filed a lawsuit against Epstein, Maxwell, and three others. Ransome alleged that she was trafficked for sex for seven months. The case was settled out of court.
Epstein was awaiting trial on child sex abuse charges, but the 66-year-old reportedly committed suicide by hanging in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan. Many are suspicious of Jeffrey Epstein’s death do to the mysterious oddities and coincidences, as well as his rumored relationships with numerous powerful individuals around the world.
Ransome said, “the day Epstein was arrested was without question the best day of my life, without question.”
She believes that Epstein is not just one sick individual, but “Jeffrey is one person in a whole spiderweb,” she told the paper. “I met lots of Russians, Eastern Europeans.”
“What about his life in Paris?” Ransome asked, referencing Epstein’s apartment on the Avenue Foch in Paris valued at $8.7 million. “You think there aren’t any 15-year-olds in Paris who have been abused? Paris was a candy shop for him. I believe they will follow through. And bring others to justice.”
You can read more Jeffrey Epstein news coverage HERE.
[NYP]