JEFFREY Epstein lived like a pig in a sty and ate his meals off the floor of his cell in his final two weeks alive, reports claim.
The disgraced billionaire died on Saturday after apparently hanging himself in a New York jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
It has since been reported that guards did not follow standard procedure and check on Epstein every 30 minutes on the night he died.
He had been placed on suicide watch after he was found collapsed in his cell with “apparent bruising on his neck” on July 23.
But Epstein, 66, was taken off suicide watch at Metropolitan Correctional Center just six days later, The New York Times reported.
The former financier was given a cell to himself in the Special Housing Unit, which is separated from the rest of the prison and has extra security.
One source told the Daily Beast that Epstein “lived like a pig in a sty” after the first “suicide attempt”, eating his meals off of the floor and constantly requesting more toilet paper.
He is also understood to have been targeted for extortion by other inmates while he was living in the general population section of the jail.
Epstein is understood to have told prison guards and fellow inmates he believed someone had tried to kill him weeks before his death.
The insider, who visited Epstein several times in jail, told Dailymail.com: “There was no indication that he might try to take his own life.”
MARKED MAN
One of Epstein’s long-time advisers and closest friends said he had predicted that the ex-investment banker would be dead within a couple of weeks.
The man, who did not want to be named, told The Sun on Sunday: “There's no way he killed himself.
“In a maximum-security confinement it’s impossible that Jeffrey took his own life.
“I know for a fact many people are breathing a sigh of relief today because they feared what would come out in court.”
Another former employee, who worked for Epstein on his private isle in the US Virgin Islands, added: “I don’t think he’d commit suicide. He was able to afford the best lawyers.”
Pictures published by the show an unconscious Epstein being wheeled out of the jail on a trolley by paramedics.
He was pronounced dead an hour later at New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital.
Epstein was spotted by defense lawyers meeting with one of his attorneys just hours before he was found “unresponsive”.
MYSTERIOUS DEATH
Attorney Patrick Joyce said he was visiting a client at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Friday evening when he saw Epstein in one of the rooms where inmates meet alone with their lawyer.
He says he looked the same as any other night. Joyce says Epstein was in a room meeting with a lawyer almost every night in the last week.
Joyce says he tried to return to the MCC to meet a client early Saturday morning but was told the facility was "totally locked down."
One ex-convict, who spoke to the Post, said it would have been “impossible” for someone to take their own life in the units Epstein was staying in.
“Between the floor and the ceiling is like eight or nine feet. There’s no way for you to connect to anything,” he said.
“There’s a steel bed frame, but you can’t move it. There’s no light fixture. There’s no bars.”
The former prisoner revealed the inmates are given paper-like sheets and rubber pens so they don’t have access to anything sharp.
The New York City medical examiner's office told Fox News a postmortem would be undertaken to determine the cause of death.
Timeline of the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein
The allegations against him go back to the 2000s
2005 - Parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home. A police search of the property found photos of girls throughout the house.
2006 - Charged with multiple counts of unlawful sexual acts with a minor.
2007 - Epstein’s lawyers put together a plea deal for Epstein, who was the 54.
He agreed to plead guilty to two felony prostitution charges in state court,
In exchange, he and his accomplices received immunity from federal sex-trafficking charges that could have sent him to prison for life.
2008 - Appears in court to plead guilty on two lesser counts and sentenced to a 18 months in jail and was released early in 2009
July 2019 - Arrested charges of child sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
Prosecutors accused him in a grand jury indictment of paying dozens of girls as young as 14 to engage in sex acts with him at his New York and Florida properties from 2002 to 2005.
Pleaded not guilty and could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
More than a dozen women have now come forward with more sex abuse allegations.
August 2019 - Hundreds of pages of court documents were unsealed alleging new details of sexual abuse claims against Epstein and several associates.
August 10 2019 - The twisted tycoon dies after apparently hanging himself in his prison cell.
Epstein's death comes a day after hundreds of pages of court documents were unsealed alleging new details of sexual abuse claims against him and several associates.
It is not yet clear whether the authorities had put in additional safeguards to watch the twisted financier - an ex pal of Prince Andrew - after the first incident in his cell.
Epstein was busted on July 6 over the alleged sexual abuse of dozens of young girls in his Upper East Side townhouse and his waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.
Court documents allege at least 40 underage girls were brought to Epstein’s mansion for sexual encounters.
MOST READ IN NEWS
He had pleaded not guilty to child sex trafficking charges in New York and could face 45 years in prison if found guilty.
On July 18, a federal judge said that the disgraced financier presented a "danger to the community" and must stay in one of New York's toughest prisons while he awaits trial.
Who is Jeffrey Epstein and what is he accused of?
Jeffrey Epstein is a US financier who was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.
He was arrested on July 6, 2019 for sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York.
Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019 on sex trafficking charges.
Court documents allege that at least 40 underage girls were brought to Epstein’s mansion for sexual encounters.
He was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
FBI agents are also said to have broken down the door to his Manhattan townhouse.
He pleaded not guilty to child sex trafficking charges in New York and could face 45 years in prison if found guilty.
On July 18, a federal judge said that the disgraced financier presented a "danger to the community" and must stay in one of New York's toughest prisons while he awaits a trial over the sex trafficking accusations.
The shamed financier was locked up amid fears he would flee the country.
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