Police are assessing allegations that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor passed on confidential information about overseas trips to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor is suspected of forwarding official reports about trips to Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam in 2010 and 2011 when he was a government trade envoy.
A Thames Valley police spokesperson said: “We can confirm receipt of this report and are assessing the information in line with our established procedures.” It came after emails in the Epstein files appeared to show that Andrew had shared information from official visits to the three countries.
The emails indicate that on 7 October 2010, the then Prince Andrew sent Epstein details of his official upcoming trips to Singapore, Vietnam, Shenzhen in China and Hong Kong, where he was accompanied by business associates of Epstein. After the trip, on 30 November, he appears to have forwarded official reports of those visits sent by his then special assistant, Amit Patel, to Epstein, five minutes after receiving them.
The development came as the Prince and Princess of Wales were said by a spokesperson to be “deeply concerned” by ongoing revelations from the Epstein files involving Mountbatten-Windsor.
William and Catherine became the most senior royals since the recent release of documents to address the scandal. In a statement, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said: “I can confirm that the Prince and Princess of Wales have been deeply concerned by the continued revelations. Their thoughts remain focused on the victims.”
William is en route to Saudi Arabia for a three-day tour of the country, and Kensington Palace is said to have wanted the position of the prince and princess to be known to allow William to focus on the tour. Much of the work of the royal family has been overshadowed since the release by the US Department of Justice of more than three million documents associated with Epstein.
The messages concerning overseas trips were sent after the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Others appear to have been sent after the December 2010 date that Mountbatten-Windsor said in a BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 that he had cut off contact with Epstein.
On Christmas Eve 2010, Andrew looped Epstein in on a confidential brief on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, the Telegraph reported. In one email, with the subject line “Afghanistan International Investment opportunities”, Mountbatten-Windsor is said to have written: “I am going to offer this elsewhere in my network (including Abu Dhabi) but would be very interested in your comments, views or ideas as to whom I could also usefully show this to attract some interest.”
In another, on 9 February 2011, Mountbatten-Windsor appeared to tell Epstein he had visited a private equity firm the week before and “thought of you as =ou [sic] were looking for somewhere for money to go. A.”
Government guidance stresses that the role of a trade envoy carries a duty of confidentiality regarding sensitive information.This may include “sensitive, commercial, or political information shared about relevant markets/visits”, the guidance reads. “This duty of confidentiality will continue to apply after the expiry of their term of office. In addition, the Official Secrets Acts 1911 and 1989 will apply.”
Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing. He has been approached for comment. The former prince features numerous times in the latest release of documents, including images that appear to show him crouched over an unidentified woman in what appears to be Epstein’s New York mansion, while another document appears to confirm that the picture of him with Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Mountbatten-Windsor had sex with her three times while she was a teenager, is real.
Thames Valley police is assessing allegations reported by the BBC that a second woman says she was sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with the then prince which allegedly occurred at his former Royal Lodge residence in 2010. The woman, who is not British, was in her 20s at the time.
Prince Edward was the first royal to speak publicly since the Epstein documents were released, saying last week that it was important to “remember the victims” when asked how he was coping since the revelations.
