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The intense focus on the former Prince Andrew’s association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has centred on the women who were trafficked for sex as young girls by the latter, and the police investigation into claims Mountbatten-Windsor handed him sensitive information while serving as the UK trade envoy.
Over the weekend, it shifted slightly to the police officers who were tasked with guarding Andrew for years as he carried out his public role as a senior royal. They are now being told to come forward and speak to detectives about what they saw and heard while on duty.
That call has come as documents released by the US justice department suggested Metropolitan police officers guarded Epstein’s New York home, and police expanded their inquiry into Andrew by reviewing records of flights at UK airports to see if they were used for human trafficking.
The development intensifies the pressure on Mountbatten-Windsor, who was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office by Thames Valley police officers last Thursday morning, before being released under investigation that evening.
On Friday, Scotland Yard said detectives had begun identifying and contacting all those who served as protection officers to Mountbatten-Windsor over the years. “They have been asked to consider care fully whether anything they saw or heard during that period of service may be relevant to our ongoing reviews and to share any information that could assist us,” a Met spokesperson said.
On Sunday, a former head of royal protection, Dai Davies, said it was “inconceivable” Mountbatten-Windsor’s former guards would not have information. He told Sky News: “They would have gone to all the five residences we’ve been talking about … in the United States Virgin Islands, New Mexico and Florida. It’s inconceivable to me, I’m sad to say, that nobody saw anything.”
He called for a judge-led inquiry, telling the People newspaper: “For too long the establishment has taken us, the public, for fools. The truth, warts and all, must come out.”
Officers were also said to be assessing claims Epstein used UK airports to traffic women. The Met, Police Scotland and West Midlands police, as well as the forces in Essex, Norfolk and Bedfordshire, are examining whether the allegations merit a full criminal investigation. Surrey and Thames Valley police forces are considering claims of sexual wrongdoing by the former prince, which he has always denied.
The Met said: “Following the further release of millions of court documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice, we are aware of the suggestion that London airports may have been used to facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation. We are assessing this information and are actively seeking further detail from law enforcement partners, including those in the United States.”
Also on Sunday, the emails showing arrangements being made for two of Scotland Yard’s protection officers to guard Epstein’s home while Mountbatten-Windsor was staying there in 2010 emerged.
One of the messages, first reported by the Sunday Times, bore the subject line “Security for party”. In it, a staff member informed Epstein the two officers had been given “instructions on the door”. Emails also suggested room had been found for “both Andrew’s bodyguards … one on the 4th floor and one on the 5th floor”, and that the officers were given a temporary security code to “get in and out” of the property.
On Friday, a former royal protection officer who has previously claimed Mountbatten-Windsor had women brought into Buckingham Palace said he had been “told to keep quiet” by the Met police.
The Times reported that Paul Page, who has said police were not allowed to record the names of Andrew’s female guests on official logs, received a warning letter reminding him of his obligations of “confidentiality and respect for the privacy of those who are protected”.
Page said he had inferred that the letter from Jon Savell, a deputy assistant commissioner who leads the Met’s security and protection command, was an instruction to “shut up”. It is understood officers viewed the letter as a general reminder to former protection officers.
Page, who worked as a royal protection officer for six years until 2004, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2009 over a £3m property investment scam that funded his expensive lifestyle and gambling addiction, paid debts and kept afloat a spread-betting scheme he ran from Buckingham Palace.
Lawyers for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have declined to comment.
