‘The breadcrumb to the larger dinner’: calls mount to widen scope of Andrew investigation

In February 2010, seven months after Jeffrey Epstein left prison for soliciting sex from an underage girl, he was invited to the 50th birthday party of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Hosted at St James’s Palace, the glittering reception included guests such as the model Naomi Campbell and the banker Evelyn de Rothschild.

Sixteen years later, the king’s brother spent his 66th birthday in very different circumstances. At just after 8am on Thursday, officers arrived at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate to arrest the former duke on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He spent about 10 hours being interviewed at Aylsham police station before leaving in the back of a car.

The extraordinary move by Thames Valley police raises the possibility that Mountbatten-Windsor could face a criminal trial into his links with Epstein after years of scrutiny. Police are examining whether he forwarded confidential reports to Epstein while he was a trade envoy for the UK. Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied wrongdoing and no charges have been brought.

However, Last night, survivors of Epstein and several lawyers questioned whether the police’s focus on Mountbatten-Windsor’s business dealings meant that female victims had once again been sidelined.

“Our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty,” the family of the late Virginia Giuffre, one of the alleged victims, said. But Giuffre’s sister-in-law told BBC News: “There’s still the underlying issue of survivors not seeing their day in court and not seeing legal action. We believe it’s the breadcrumb to the larger dinner.”

Before her death last April, Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor on three occasions in 2001, including in London, when she was 17. He denied the claims. Giuffre later settled a lawsuit against the royal for a reported £12m with no admission of liability.

In November 2016, the Met decided not to proceed to a full criminal investigation into Giuffre’s allegations on the basis that US authorities were “best placed” to progress it. The force stuck to this decision after Epstein’s suicide in 2019 and again in 2021 and 2022. In December 2025 it reiterated its position that no formal criminal investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor would be launched.

In the last month, however, a second woman has alleged she was sent to the UK in 2010 by Epstein for a sexual encounter with the former prince.

“We’ve known about these allegations for so long,” Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University, told The Observer. “Nobody seems to have taken them seriously. It’s jarring that Andrew has been arrested for misconduct but not for any of the other alleged offences.” Police said last Thursday that their investigation had only started 11 days ago.

McGlynn called for the Met to disclose more details of why it abandoned its initial inquiry. “It’s a huge public issue,” she said, “Were the police protection officers colluding? Who gave them that authority? There are serious questions to answer. Very few people take the testimony of a woman in these circumstances seriously.”

For example, Mountbatten-Windsor and his “friends” have long intimated that a photograph showing him and Giuffre together in 2001 was fake or doctored. In a 2019 interview with BBC’s Newsnight, he said: “Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph had been doctored but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.”

However, a private email apparently sent by Ghislaine Maxwell to Epstein in 2015 states that Maxwell “was in London when [Giuffre] met a number of friends of mine including Prince Andrew. A photograph was taken as I imagine she wanted to show friends and family.”

Another message, sent by Epstein in July 2011, also appears to confirm the former prince was photographed with Giuffre. “Yes she [Giuffre] was on my plane and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew.” In the Newsnight interview, Mountbatten-Windsor also claimed he was not at Maxwell’s home but at a Pizza Express in Woking. The emails appear to contradict that claim too.

The Observer has found a document alleging that another woman, based in the US, refused to give the then prince a massage because she “didn’t feel good about it.”

The woman, who was a licensed masseuse and model, met Epstein when she was in her early 20s. In 2021, she was interviewed by investigators working for Maxwell. According to their report, the woman said: “Looking back at my age now, I feel I was being prepped to be exchanged around. I just didn’t know it.

“I saw Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. [Epstein] wanted me to give Prince Andrew a massage but I didn’t feel good about that. I wonder if he was offering me to do more.”

There is no suggestion that Mountbatten-Windsor knew the woman, whose name has been redacted, was uncomfortable or that an offence was committed. His representatives have been contacted for comment.

The woman’s evidence suggests any interaction with Mountbatten-Windsor took place outside the UK and so is unlikely to have a direct impact on any future British police investigation.

US authorities have repeatedly sought to question Mountbatten-Windsor in connection with their own investigation into Epstein, and in 2020 asked their British counterparts to interview him on the basis that he may have been a “witness to and/or participant in events of relevance". The US authorities said the royal was “not presently a target of the investigation” and they had “not, to date, gathered evidence that he has committed any crime under US law”.

Emails in the files also include recent messages from the Met Police to US authorities asking about Mountbatten-Windsor. In one, DCI Ollie Stride sent an email with the subject line “Operation DawnChorus”. Stride said he was “reviewing” allegations relating to the then prince’s activities with Giuffre as well as “efforts he has allegedly made to get information about her through his protection officers.” A month later, the Met announced it would not investigate the claims further.

Five years before, in June 2020, an unnamed senior officer working as the UK’s Counter Terrorism Liaison Officer in the US asked authorities there for a conversation in relation to Epstein. The senior officer explained he usually focused on terrorist cases but was “occasionally asked to assist with more sensitive UK enquiries”. The Met did not respond to questions about either email including whether the 2020 message suggested the then prince's case received special attention.

Last Thursday, the Met said it was carrying out “initial inquiries” into allegations relating to close protection officers. It comes after an unnamed former senior Met protection officer told LBC that officers might have “wilfully turned a blind eye” to wrongdoing.

“There seems to have been a reluctance to allow scrutiny of close protection officers,” Mark Stephens, a senior lawyer, told The Observer. “The law appears to curtsy to power in almost every case.”

In the wake of the Epstein file dump, nine police forces are now either investigating allegations in the Epstein files or seeking more information. The National Crime Agency is also involved.

Concern has also been raised that Epstein may have used UK airports to traffic women for himself and others on private jets. This inquiry isn’t specifically related to Mountbatten-Windsor.

Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, has contacted six police forces that cover airports in the UK used by Epstein. Brown urged the forces to investigate his flights in and out of Britain.

Brown said police “urgently” needed to re-examine whether Epstein’s victims were trafficked within and outside the UK.

Documents disclosed by the US Department of Justice this month appear to support aspects of Giuffre’s testimony. The disclosures raise further questions about whether British police took her seriously enough.

Photograph by Phil Noble/Reuters