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Serious failures at a New York jail gave convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein the opportunity to take his life, federal investigators found.

Guards left Epstein alone and failed to check on him or search his cell, according to a report by the US justice department's watchdog.

The report says that 13 employees failed in their duties.

Epstein, 66, was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges at the time of his death.

The watchdog said it had identified "numerous and serious failures" in the jail.

The justice department inspector general found guards failed to conduct rounds, neglected to monitor Epstein and later falsified jail records after the fact to cover up their misconduct.

The said that, despite Epstein's previous suicide attempt, guards did not assign him a cellmate and allowed him access to extra bed linens, which were used in his suicide.

The report also says surveillance cameras near the unit where he was housed were not working, meaning they did not capture video footage of outside his cell the night he died.

A "combination of negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures... contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates in BOP's custody was left unmonitored and alone in his cell," Michael Horowitz, the justice department's inspector general, said.

In her response to the report, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Colette Peters said the findings were "troubling", but those who were accused of misconduct were "a very small percentage of the approximately 35,000 employees across more than 120 institutions who continue to strive for correctional excellence every day".

The report rejected any suggestions that Epstein's cause of death was anything other than suicide.

The disgraced financier, who mixed with some of the world's most famous people, was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

He was arrested again in 2019, when prosecutors accused him of running a "vast network" of underage girls for sex.