Jeffrey Epstein rented at least four flats in London to house women he abused, continuing to operate an extensive sex-trafficking network in the United Kingdom years after British police chose not to investigate credible allegations against him, a BBC investigation has found. The flats were located in Kensington and Chelsea, one of London's most affluent boroughs, and are documented in receipts, emails, and bank records contained within the Epstein files — millions of pages of records gathered and released by the US Department of Justice. Six of the women who lived in those properties have since come forward as victims of Epstein's abuse.

Many of the women housed in the London flats were brought from Russia, eastern Europe, and elsewhere to the UK after the Metropolitan Police — London's main police force — decided not to pursue Virginia Giuffre's 2015 allegation that she had been a victim of international trafficking to the city. The BBC found that some women were coerced by Epstein into recruiting others into his trafficking scheme, and were regularly transported by Eurostar — the cross-Channel rail service linking London and Paris — to visit him in France. Epstein purchased at least 53 Eurostar tickets for young women between 2011 and 2019, with the number steadily rising in the final years of his life. By early 2020, a second woman had complained to the Met that she had been abused by Epstein on British soil, though it remains unclear whether that complaint was acted upon. British authorities were also informed in 2020, shortly after Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial on US charges of sex trafficking, that he had rented at least one of the identified flats.

The investigation paints a picture of Epstein remaining intimately involved in the lives of his victims up until his arrest in July 2019. In a 2019 Skype exchange, he messaged a young Russian woman living in one of his London flats, joking that he was her landlord — one who paid rent rather than collected it. The same woman later asked him for money for English classes and furniture, and sought his advice on visa arrangements for another Russian woman. The flats, despite their desirable addresses, were sometimes overcrowded, with women sleeping on sofas. In messages recovered from the files, Epstein threatened to convert rent payments into loans if women did not work for him, and in other exchanges berated and insulted women who complained about their conditions.

Human rights lawyer Tessa Gregory, of the firm Leigh Day, said she was "staggered" that no UK police investigation had ever been launched, arguing that credible trafficking allegations create a positive legal obligation for the state to conduct a prompt and independent inquiry even without victims formally coming forward. The Metropolitan Police defended its conduct, stating it had followed "reasonable lines of inquiry", interviewed Giuffre on multiple occasions, co-operated with US investigators, and fulfilled its duties under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right to freedom from slavery and forced labour. Kevin Hyland, a former senior Met detective and the UK's first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, was less measured, saying police had missed clear opportunities and calling on authorities to examine who else had been involved in Epstein's network. "Epstein's dead. But it's clear that he wasn't acting alone," Hyland said. "Is this still going on with others?"