Pressure is mounting for a renewed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor Epstein investigation after former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird urged police to “start properly investigating” the former royal’s links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to the BBC, Dame Vera said she had previously raised concerns about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with the Metropolitan Police, but was told that alleged offending connected to Epstein had largely taken place overseas and that there was “not much to go on” for UK investigators. She said that assessment had now changed significantly following the emergence of new evidence.
New evidence changes the landscape
Dame Vera, who served as victims’ commissioner for England and Wales between 2019 and 2022 and now chairs the Criminal Cases Review Commission, said the situation had “changed very radically”. She echoed calls from former prime minister Gordon Brown for a formal police inquiry.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
Brown calls for urgent police review
Earlier this week, Brown wrote in the New Statesman urging the Metropolitan Police to “urgently” re-examine whether Epstein’s victims were trafficked in and out of the UK. His intervention followed the release of further documents in the United States relating to Epstein’s activities and contacts.
A BBC investigation in December found that at least 87 flights linked to Epstein had arrived at or departed from UK airports between the early 1990s and 2018. Some of those flights reportedly carried British women who have since said they were abused by Epstein.
According to Brown, newly released US documents “suggest a number of British girls were on 90 Epstein flights organised from UK airports”, including 15 flights that took place after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for a child sex offence.
Stansted Airport references raise questions
Brown said references to Stansted Airport being used by Epstein’s private plane to transport women in and out of the UK should trigger a police investigation.
Dame Vera told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that references to Stansted in the documents were “absolutely new to me”. She said that during her time as victims’ commissioner, her role was to ensure the state protected victims, adding that the status of the individual involved heightened the seriousness of the matter.
“There happens to be a monarchy and on the face of it there is strong suspicion the then-son of the monarch offers some sort of threat to victims,” she said, adding that concerns about the case had “niggled” her for some time.
Email evidence and renewed scrutiny
Dame Vera also pointed to a newly published email from Ghislaine Maxwell that appeared to confirm the authenticity of a photograph showing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his hand around the waist of his late accuser, Virginia Giuffre.
The former prince has previously questioned whether the image had been doctored and claimed he had never met Giuffre. He has not commented publicly since Maxwell’s 2015 email appeared to confirm the photograph was genuine.
“All of that reinforces the position I held when I was victims’ commissioner – that it is time to investigate this and that we look quite odd if we don’t,” Dame Vera said.
Fresh allegations under review
Last week, Thames Valley Police confirmed it was assessing allegations from a woman who claims she was sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, alleges the encounter took place at Andrew’s former residence, Royal Lodge in Windsor.
Stansted Airport has previously said that private aircraft use independent terminals not operated by the airport itself and that it has no oversight of passenger arrangements on privately operated flights.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor stepped back from public duties in 2019 amid growing controversy over his friendship with Epstein. The issue returned to public focus following the release of extensive Epstein-related court documents in the US, which have renewed scrutiny of individuals who associated with the financier after his conviction.
Campaigners and victims’ advocates have argued that UK authorities must now reassess whether crimes connected to Epstein’s network occurred on British soil and whether previous assumptions about jurisdiction remain valid.
