Epstein Survivor Says She Was Drugged, Raped and Has No Memory of Assaults

A woman who says Jeffrey Epstein drugged and raped her when she was 19 years old gave her first public account of the alleged assault in an interview with BBC Newsnight, describing a 12-hour blackout she has never been able to recover through years of therapy.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous and is identified as "Nikki" by the BBC, told the program that Epstein drugged her and she believes raped her while she was unconscious for 12 hours. She said she was 19 and working as a model when she first encountered the convicted sex offender at his waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.

The sequence of events she described is methodical and disturbing. After giving Epstein a massage, she accepted a glass of water he offered her. She blacked out for hours. When she regained consciousness, she woke up feeling sick, sluggish and heavy. A trip to the bathroom revealed signs of sexual activity she had no memory of.

"I have done various psychotherapies to try to remember, to try and have a glimpse of something, and it's black, I have no idea," she said. "But I can logically make a variety of assumptions that I think would be very accurate."

Later that same day, Epstein asked her to massage him again. During that second session, she says he pulled at her jeans in an attempt to undress her. She told him she was on her period, which was not true. He encouraged intercourse anyway and masturbated in front of her. She got dressed and told herself she had to "get the hell out of here." On her way out, she stopped to wash massage oil off her hands. When she returned, Epstein offered her water again.

"I took some water and I have no recollection of anything for a minimum of 12 hours after that," she said.

The account arrived as a separate survivor added her own voice to the accumulating record of Epstein's alleged crimes. Marina Lacerda, known as "Minor Victim-1" in legal documents, who revealed her identity in September 2025, spoke about a turning point in her understanding of what Epstein had done to her, saying she was shocked to hear other survivors describe being raped by him.

She turned to a friend, another survivor she identifies only as "Jane Doe," and expressed disbelief. Her friend then sat her down and told her that Marina herself had been raped and that other survivors had been forced by Epstein to watch it happen.

Marina said her friend told her Epstein would line them up in the room and watch Marina while telling the others they should act and treat him just like Marina, whom he called a "good girl."

Lacerda was a 14-year-old Brazilian immigrant in New York when Epstein began abusing her, and she later became "Minor Victim 1" in his 2019 federal indictment. Federal investigators first contacted her in 2008, but Epstein secured a controversial non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors before she could testify to a grand jury. Investigators returned to her more than a decade later, using her experiences to build the case that led to his 2019 arrest.

Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor, serving just 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail with generous work-release privileges. Years of civil suits and dozens of previously unheard victims eventually came forward, leading to his 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. He was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking minors between 2002 and 2005 in New York and Florida, and died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial.

The BBC interview with the anonymous survivor, referred to as Nikki, is part of a broader moment in which Epstein's victims have been forced back into public view. The January 2026 government file release drew criticism over redaction failures, with the Justice Department publishing dozens of unredacted images showing young women and attorneys for survivors noting that names of victims who had never been publicly linked to Epstein appeared exposed in the files. For Lacerda and others, the releases have compounded rather than resolved the harm.