New footage released by US authorities shows prison guards calmly going about their business inside the prison where Jeffrey Epstein died just half an hour after he was found.
The paedophile billionaire had been found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York at 6.30am on August 19, 2019, despite being a high profile prisoner who had been on suicide watch.
But the first footage to emerge of the immediate aftermath of his death from inside the jail shows a scene of apparent calm on the floor above Epstein’s cell.
In CCTV released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) as part of what it says will be the final tranche of the ‘Epstein Files’, evidence compiled ahead of his expected trial on sex offences, a drab prison corridor and a large curved guards’ station can be seen.
The scene, filmed at just after 7am, focuses, presumably from a fixed prison camera in the corridor, on the apparently deserted black pillared desk for the first seven minutes.
A hand is then seen coming across the screen from the left of the shot from someone seated behind the desk reaching to answer a phone and possibly press an intercom.
Around 40 seconds later, the male guard in uniform and a baseball cap stands up and begins to move away slowly but soon doubles back to reach for something to eat from a shelf. He can be seen emptying handfuls into his palm from a small box and shovelling them into his mouth.
He continues to eat as a female guard in uniform appears at the front of the desk with her back to the camera and picks up the phone.
Video shows the prison guards going calmly about their business just 30 minutes after Epstein was found dead in his cell
The scene was one of apparent calm on the floor above Epstein’s cell, filmed just after 7am
Video footage released by the Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell
Epstein was found dead inside his New York prison cell in 2019. His death was ruled suicide by hanging
The pair are seen interacting without any panic as the male guard picks up what looks like a large bag of crisps and eats several handfuls. The footage does not have any sound so it is impossible to hear what they say to each other.
They then both move away from the desk in separate directions.
Another video released shows a moving handheld camera panning down a prison corridor through grey doors. The footage matches the known layout of the prison.
What happened immediately outside Epstein’s cell when he was found is still unknown. He was taken to hospital where he died after attempts to revive him failed.
It later transpired that he had not been checked on every half an hour as he was supposed to have been and cameras outside his cell had not been working.
Separate footage taken inside the tiny prison cell where he died at a later date was also released by the DoJ for the first time.
The video was filmed at the institution’s Special Housing Unit where he was being held in solitary confinement.
The new footage shows an unknown person giving a ‘tour’ of the now empty cell on an unknown date with a handheld camera.
The paedophile billionaire had been found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York at 6.30am on August 19, 2019
Epstein’s death came despite the fact that he was a high profile prisoner who had been on suicide watch
Jeffrey Epstein and a group of young women in an undated photo released by the US House Oversight Committee in December
The three videos were some of the more than 2000 videos released in the latest file drop.
The film begins with the view through the door into the cell. A large rectangular glass panel in the door allows guards to see clearly into the cell and across to the utilitarian fitted stainless steel bunk bed facing the door which Epstein was found next to.
Someone out of shot introduces the minute long footage announcing this is ‘the view from outside the cell’ before moving into the harshly lit cell.
The grey concrete floor is bare and the stark white breeze block walls are punctuated with a heavily barred window behind the bed and several bright striplights.
A functional seatless stainless steel toilet with a toilet roll holder on the wall alongside it and a sink unit above it is on the left hand side wall and alongside it is a small fixed white desktop with an attached stool.
The only other furniture in the room is the now stripped low bunk bed which has an integrated metal attached set of steps with three rungs up to the top bunk.
The cameraman moves into the cell and pans around the room allowing viewers to take in the harsh reality of its most basic of facilities, the final abode of the convicted sex offender, who was more used to the most luxurious of interiors at his numerous homes where he abused multiple young women and girls.
His death was later ruled as suicide after an extensive investigation although conspiracy theories about his death abound because of his connections to the rich and powerful.
One investigator described what happened in the prison as ‘a perfect storm of screw ups’ and the prison was ‘temporarily’ closed in 2021 because of its ‘deteriorating condition’ but has still not re-opened.
Anthony Kucera
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