Police investigating claims that Epstein trafficked women through UK airports

 

Police investigating claims that Epstein trafficked women through UK airports

British police have expanded their interest in the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Britain, by admitting for the first time they are looking at claims he used dozens of private flights into UK airports to traffic women.

It comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown said that documents about Epstein released in the US showed in “graphic detail” how the disgraced financier, with links to high-profile people including the former Prince Andrew, was able to use Stansted airport in Essex to “fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia”.

Essex police on Friday had repeatedly declined to confirm to the Guardian whether it was assessing claims that Stansted had been used for such flights. On Tuesday, the force admitted it was.

Police in the UK are keen to show, sources say, that they will investigate without fear or favour, with allegations about Epstein and his links to the powerful swirling around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who is the king’s brother.

In all, four British police forces are now confirmed to be assessing claims to see if full criminal investigations are needed.

The forces involved include Thames Valley police, which is assessing two separate claims against Mountbatten-Windsor and whether they merit a full criminal investigation, and Surrey police, which is assessing another allegation against him.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied all wrongdoing.

The Metropolitan police is criminally investigating Peter Mandelson for allegedly passing information to Epstein while a Labour government minister.

Bedfordshire’s police force has been unable to say if it is assessing claims that Luton airport was used by planes linked to Epstein to traffic women. Some police sources say it is assessing such claims.

One senior policing source has told the Guardian that a “tsunami” of allegations was expected as a result of the release of millions of files relating to Epstein.

In an article for the New Statesman last week, Brown said the Epstein files showed the financier’s jet making 90 flights to or from UK airports, including 15 after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child.

He said Epstein “boasted” about how cheap Stansted’s airport charges were compared with Paris.

Brown said Stansted airport was where “women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another”, adding that “women arriving on private planes into Britain would not need British visas”.

He said it seemed as though authorities “never knew what was happening”, referring to evidence uncovered by the BBC which showed “incomplete flight logs, with unnamed passengers simply labelled as ‘female’”.

On Tuesday, an Essex police spokesperson said: “We are assessing the information that has emerged in relation to private flights into and out of Stansted airport following the publication of the US DoJ (Department of Justice) Epstein files.”

A Stansted airport spokesperson said: “All private aircraft at London Stansted operate through independent fixed base operators, which handle all aspects of private and corporate aviation in line with regulatory requirements.

“All immigration and customs checks for passengers arriving on private aircraft are carried out directly by Border Force.

“They use entirely independent terminals not operated by London Stansted and no private jet passengers enter the main airport terminal.

“The airport does not manage or have any visibility of passenger arrangements on privately operated aircraft.”