Tony Diver and Janet Eastham
Former British prime minister Gordon Brown has demanded a police investigation into whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used taxpayer-funded jets and RAF bases to meet paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Telegraph can reveal that Brown wrote letters to six police forces suggesting that civil servants be questioned about Mountbatten-Windsor’s time as a trade envoy. The royal was an envoy from 2001 to 2011, including almost three years when Brown was in No. 10.
He has also demanded a full investigation into the trade envoy role, its cost to taxpayers and any evidence that links Mountbatten-Windsor’s government work to Epstein.
His five-page letters were sent individually to police in London, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley, Norfolk and Bedfordshire this week, but their contents were not publicly disclosed. Brown said only that they contained “new and additional information”.
The Telegraph can now reveal that they show his deep concern that Mountbatten-Windsor had used chartered RAF flights to transport him to personal engagements that could have involved Epstein, and that the former prince might have leaked confidential information from the trips in a “wholly unacceptable” use of public money.
At the time, Mountbatten-Windsor was nicknamed “Airmiles Andy” for using taxpayer-funded flights to make private leisure or business trips, usually on the way back from a government engagement.
Brown believes that given the close relationship between the two men, the planes may have been used to facilitate meetings with Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor has been accused of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre, who was then 17, after she was introduced to him by Epstein – a claim the former prince has always denied.
Brown wants police to interview officials at four government departments – the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Transport, the Foreign Office and the Treasury – over Mountbatten-Windsor’s trade envoy role, in an attempt to uncover any link to the disgraced financier.
The former prime minister is also understood to be concerned about a flight the convicted paedophile took on a Gulfstream jet that landed at RAF Marham air base in Norfolk in December 2000, which The Telegraph revealed more than a decade ago.
Emails and flight logs that the US Justice Department have disclosed show that the jet, carrying Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, initially landed at Luton Airport on December 6. The following day, it made the 129-kilometre hop to RAF Marham, this time with two additional passengers, one of whom is listed only as an unnamed “female”.
It reported that after landing at a Ministry of Defence base, Epstein and Maxwell travelled the 32-kilometre journey to the Queen’s Sandringham Estate, where they were entertained by Mountbatten-Windsor, who is alleged to have arranged their access to the base.
The public only learned of Mountbatten-Windsor’s alleged role in facilitating the use of the military airbase after the release of the Epstein files.
Emails show Maxwell raising queries from a Telegraph reporter with Epstein, telling him: “I think that’s crap and not true and you should say so”. He replied: “Just spoke to Larry [Visoski, his pilot], it’s true”.
“S–t..,” Maxwell responded.
In light of the apparent use of British military facilities, Brown has requested that police examine whether Epstein was given access to RAF bases after his conviction for soliciting child prostitution in Florida in 2008.
His letter to police makes reference to a photograph of the former prince lying on the laps of unnamed guests at Sandringham, flanked by Maxwell, Epstein’s “lieutenant”.
The Epstein files revealed how deeply enmeshed the House of York had become with the convicted paedophile. Emails show Epstein and his associates sought to exploit the former prince’s “aura and access” as UK trade envoy, while also dazzling him with offers of female company and lucrative business deals.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on Thursday night (AEDT) on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, after the release of emails that are alleged to have shown he passed sensitive information to Epstein while working for the government.
Brown believes that Mountbatten-Windsor’s use of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money to fly to the trade envoy meetings may exacerbate the seriousness of his conduct.
In this week’s letters, he gave an extensive list of runways used by Epstein in the UK, including those at commercial airports in Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool, Birmingham, Norfolk, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted.
He believes airline employees and staff at the nine airports should be questioned about Epstein’s flights to the UK, after his own analysis of the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice uncovered emails between Epstein’s pilots and other members of staff discussing flights.
He has called for any records held by the UK Ministry of Defence to be handed to the police, and for a thorough investigation establishing what diligence checks were carried out on Epstein before he was cleared to land.
Brown has said publicly that he is concerned about the complicity of the British state in Epstein’s offences, arguing that Britain’s “unacknowledged role” in the Epstein saga “is by far the biggest scandal of all”.
Mountbatten-Windsor is under investigation for misconduct in public office. The King stripped him of his titles last year, and he now also faces losing his position in the line of succession, following an unprecedented intervention from Downing Street on Friday.
On Saturday, police continued to search Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, Royal Lodge.
Two of his private bodyguards were photographed stocking up on supplies in King’s Lynn, close to his new Sandringham home, carrying boxes of beer under their arms.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was “standard practice” for private or commercial aircraft to use RAF airfields, “subject to fees which cover all costs”.
The spokesman added: “Such use is not automatic and will only be approved when there is no adverse impact to military aircraft and where approval would not interfere with the security or smooth running of the airfield.”
