Jeffrey Epstein, a 66-year-old American billionaire convicted sex offender has committed suicide while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking charges, officials have said.

The 66-year-old reportedly hung himself in his Lower Manhattan prison cell in New York

His body was found in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York on Saturday morning at around 7.30am, Independent reports.

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Jeffrey Edward Epstein was an American financier and convicted sex offender, best known for his alleged sex trafficking of minors and close connections with many of the world’s elite.

Last month, the billionaire who is friends with notable personalities like President Donald Trump was charged the 66-year-old with sex-trafficking girls as young as 14.

Epstein was already a registered sex offender after being found guilty of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008. He spent 18 months in prison.

It was gathered that Epstein had previously been relocated to a suicide-watch unit after being found unconscious in his jail cell with marks on his neck on 23 July – a week after his bail request was rejected.

Until his conviction for sex crimes in 2008, Epstein was a well-connected multimillionaire who moved among the financial, political, and cultural elite of society

In 2005, the Palm Beach police in Florida began investigating Epstein after a parent complained that he molested her 14-year-old daughter. Epstein eventually pleaded guilty and was convicted in a Florida state court in 2008 of soliciting a prostitute and of procuring an under-18 girl for prostitution.

He served 13 months in custody with work release, as part of a plea deal, where federal officials had identified 36 girls as young as 14 years old who had been molested.

Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.