Epstein survivors have described how Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, enjoyed the fear they felt during their abuse, according to a report from the BBC. The survivors, including Joanna Harrison, spoke out after their names were inadvertently revealed in the release of millions of documents by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Survivors’ identities thrust into spotlight

Millions of documents related to the various investigations of Epstein were released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Some of the unredacted material failed to obscure the identity of his victims. Harrison was one of those people whose name was made public. She told BBC Newsnight she never wanted the files to be released, fearing she would lose her anonymity.

“It’s not normal to see your abuser’s face every day for six years on TV,” Harrison said. She recounted meeting Epstein in Florida when she was 18, and like other survivors, she said everything began with a massage. “Everything seemed normal,” Harrison said. “When he began to masturbate, I completely froze. I don’t think I said two words in the car in the ride home.” She later recounted Epstein raping her on his birthday.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Harrison said she doubted she and other survivors would ever get justice now that Epstein was dead. “I have questions I’ll never get an answer to.”

Five countries in five days with Clinton, Spacey and Maxwell

Chauntae Davies shared never-before-seen images with BBC Newsnight of her time travelling with Epstein on his private plane to Africa. The pictures included Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell as well as actor Kevin Spacey and former President Bill Clinton. Spacey and Clinton were travelling on a humanitarian trip to promote Aids prevention.

“I described it in my journal at the time as the most eclectic group of people that you could put together… it was almost like a camp feel because you were travelling to five different countries in five days,” she said. On the plane they ate snacks, played cards and told stories. “It was very much a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and unfortunately, it had to be tainted by what was happening behind closed doors,” she said.

Davies has said she was raped by Epstein on his private island after being hired to give him massages. The trained massage therapist recalled during the Newsnight discussion that she gave Clinton a neck and back massage at an airport in Portugal while the plane refuelled. At the time, she said she wrote in her journal that the former president was humble, kind and charismatic.

The former president was asked about this interaction with Davies when he sat for a deposition in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee in February. He told the committee he wished Davies had told him about Epstein’s wrongdoing. But Davies said she never considered telling Clinton: “I was never going to speak about this with anyone.”

“What would he have done, really? Could [Clinton] have stopped it?” Davies wondered about Epstein’s wrongdoing. “I guess we’ll never know.” At one point, while in Portugal with Clinton, Davies recalled helping the former president buy jewellery for his daughter, Chelsea. Clinton has repeatedly said he did not witness Epstein’s abuse. His name crops up hundreds of times in the Epstein files. Appearing in documents related to Epstein does not imply any wrongdoing.

Epstein’s ‘eerie’ New Mexico ranch

Earlier this year, allegations surfaced in justice department files about Epstein that prompted the U.S. state of New Mexico to re-open a criminal probe into his Zorro Ranch. The state previously shelved its initial investigation into the ranch in 2019 following a request from federal prosecutors in New York.

“That’s where the majority of the assaults happened. I have my darkest memories from Zorro Ranch,” Davies said. When she recalled what it felt like to be there, she told BBC Newsnight she had felt “trapped.” “It had a cold, dark, eerie feeling in there,” Davies said.

Lisa Phillips, another survivor who spoke to BBC Newsnight, echoed that sentiment about the ranch. “I remember being like ‘this place is really creepy’, it just had that feel to it,” she said. Davies said she believes there is a lot more to uncover about what happened at Zorro Ranch.

Epstein loved to brag about his well-connected and well-appointed friends, Davies said. She said he bragged about lending money to Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York. “It wasn’t a secret,” Davies told BBC Newsnight. There were framed photos of Ferguson with her former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and their daughters at Epstein’s property, Davies said.

Phillips, a fashion model at the time, also spoke about Epstein’s connections to Mountbatten-Windsor and retold a story of her friend, who has not spoken publicly and wants to remain anonymous, allegedly being instructed to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor. She said her friend went to Epstein’s Upper East Side New York City apartment in 2003 where she was directed to go into a room and have sex with a man whom she said was Mountbatten-Windsor.

Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied all wrongdoing. Phillips told BBC Newsnight she later asked Epstein why he had made her friend have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor. She said Epstein smirked and replied: “I like to have things on people.” “He liked the fear in our eyes,” she said of Epstein’s abuses. “I think he liked that we were frozen and scared and didn’t know what to do, and I think he got off on that.”

In the Newsnight interview, Phillips called on the UK police to speak to her about what she knows about her friend’s alleged assault and Mountbatten-Windsor’s involvement. Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The probe centres on accusations he shared confidential, sensitive information with Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy.

The survivors who spoke to BBC Newsnight said they do not believe Epstein killed himself. “We knew him, we knew the kind of person he was,” Phillips said. Epstein was found dead in his prison cell on 10 August 2019 while he was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, in New York, on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges ahead of trial. It was ruled a suicide by the New York medical examiner.

“I don’t smile the same way now,” Harrison said, looking at the image of herself at 18. The survivors’ stories highlight the lasting impact of Epstein’s abuse on their lives and the ongoing quest for justice.