Police in Scotland are conducting inquiries into the time Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, spent at the Royal Family’s Balmoral estate with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, authorities confirmed.
Police Scotland said in a statement to Global News that the inquiries began after it received “information” and that the probe was at a “very early stage.″
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The department’s response came after U.K. newspaper The Daily Express reported the investigation and alleged the inquiries were related to claims that women were trafficked to the private estate in the Scottish Highlands.
“All enquiries are evidence-led, with the needs of victim survivors at the heart of those enquiries,” the police force continued.
“We would never confirm details of ongoing enquiries and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
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Police have not said what the inquiries concern or what information they are investigating.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting sex from underage girls. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor; they visited Balmoral Castle in 1999 as guests of Mountbatten-Windsor, according to the BBC and The Guardian.
Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Texas.
This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
U.S. Department of Justice via AP
The Scottish probe follows the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor by police in England in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office in relation to his ties to Epstein. During his time as U.K. trade envoy, the former prince allegedly shared sensitive information with the former New York City businessman.
His arrest was the first time in nearly four centuries that British police had taken a senior royal into custody.
Earlier this month, a U.K. judge ruled that warrants obtained to search Mountbatten-Windsor’s home in light of his arrest were unlawful.
Mountbatten-Windsor has not been charged with any crimes and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
Several other U.K. police forces, including London’s Metropolitan Police Service, Thames Valley Police, and Surrey Police, are also investigating information released in the Epstein files by the U.S. Justice Department earlier this year.
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Mountbatten-Windsor’s ties to Epstein have been a sore spot for the royal family for more than a decade, and have led to the stripping of his title as “prince” by his older brother, King Charles III. Their mother, Queen Elizabeth II, removed Mountbatten-Windsor’s military titles, royal patronages, and prohibited him from using the official style of “His Royal Highness,” months before she died in 2022.
Mountbatten-Windsor was also ordered by the king to vacate the Royal Lodge, his longtime residence near Windsor Castle. He now lives in a house at Sandringham, the king’s privately owned estate in eastern England.
Andrew’s connection to Epstein is also linked to claims made by Virginia Giuffre, an outspoken victim of Epstein and Maxwell, who reached an out-of-court settlement in a civil sexual assault lawsuit against Mountbatten Windsor in 2022.
She had long claimed she was trafficked to Britain to have sex with the former prince in 2001, when she was just 17.
Details of her interactions with the former prince, including alleged sexual assaults, were disclosed at length in her posthumously published memoir, Nobody’s Girl.
Giuffre died by suicide last year.
— with files from the Associated Press
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