How Epstein is still shifting tectonic plates of world's elite from the grave

From New York to the Royal Lodge, yet another toxic dossier about the billionaire is wreaking havoc on power players. By Anne McElvoy

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IF sunlight is the best disinfectant, it has taken many years and traumatic testimony from scores of victims for its beams to reach the dark recesses of the Jeffrey Epstein story — a grim tale of the routine sexual abuse of young women and girls, covered up by the wealth and influence of a New York celebrity financier and the complicity of his British enabler Ghislaine Maxwell.

The roll call of the victims of trafficking and abuse is lengthy — 200 women are receiving compensation via the JP Morgan bank, which financed Epstein’s businesses. Now that a US court has unsealed a vast cache of documents pertaining to the legal cases brought against Epstein and his estate, there is more evidence of the sex-trafficking network that flourished as two social magnets globe-trotted and partied with some of the biggest names in transatlantic politics, society and royalty.

The new disclosures have sent shivers down many celebrity spines as backwash or association with Epstein and Maxwell threatens to do more damage to reputations. “It’s like a sudden tap on the shoulder that makes you shudder,” says one screenwriter who featured in Epstein’s “black book of contacts”. “And that’s just for those of us who had nothing to do with his wrongdoing.”