TL;DR
- Newly revealed emails indicate that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor proposed a “catch-up” with Jeffrey Epstein in April 2010, months after Epstein’s release from prison for trafficking offences.
- Virginia Giuffre’s family has called for an investigation into Andrew over her allegations of sexual abuse, claims the prince has consistently denied.
- Public opinion largely supports King Charles’s decision to strip Andrew of royal titles, although many feel his response to the allegations was too slow.
Newly-released emails show Andrew suggested ‘catch-up’ with Jeffrey Epstein after his prison release | UK News
Newly revealed emails show Andrew Mountbatten Windsor told Jeffrey Epstein it would be “good to catch up in person” months after the paedophile financier was released from prison.
Epstein, who had been jailed for prostituting minors, was released in July 2009.
He emailed the then-prince on 15 April 2010 to suggest he should meet American banker Jes Staley in London later that month.
Andrew replied that he would be out of the UK on the suggested date, but said he would try to “drop by” New York later in the year.
“I’ll look and see if I can make a couple of days before the summer,” he wrote. “It would be good to catch up in person.”
Andrew and Epstein were pictured together in New York’s Central Park in December 2010, in a meeting Andrew later claimed was to end their friendship.
The correspondence was released on Friday in unsealed court documents from a 2023 legal battle between the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a private island, and JP Morgan, over its alleged dealings with the billionaire. The bank settled the lawsuit.
The documents show Epstein forwarded the email to Mr Staley, who was banned from holding senior finance roles by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2023 after he was found to have misled the regulator over the nature of his relationship with the disgraced billionaire.
Virginia Giuffre’s family calls for ‘investigation’
It comes as Virginia Giuffre’s family called for Andrew to be “investigated” over her claims against him.
Ms Giuffre, who took her own life earlier this year, claimed that – as a teenager – she had sex with Andrew on three occasions after being trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell.
Andrew has always denied the claims. Ms Giuffre sued in 2021 and the case was settled outside of court for a sum believed to have been around £12m.