The Police Had Evidence Against Andrew Since 2015 but Never Investigated, Epstein Files Reveal

Newly released Epstein documents show the Metropolitan Police interviewed Virginia Giuffre three times over two years—and reviewed their decision three more times after that.

Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of child sexual abuse that some readers may find distressing.

The question of whether British authorities ever had a real shot at holding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor accountable has lingered for some time. The answer, it turns out, is yes—and they had it earlier than almost anyone knew.

As per The New York Times, the Metropolitan Police had evidence as far back as 2015 that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell had trafficked Virginia Giuffre to London and forced her to have s** with Mountbatten-Windsor at Maxwell's home in the British capital. Giuffre told detectives she had been flown to the city in 2001, when she was 17 years old. Police also told NYT that they interviewed her on three separate occasions, twice in 2015 and once in 2016. Each time, they chose not to open a criminal investigation.

That decision was obscured from public view and has now been made public through the U.S. Justice Department's release of millions of Epstein-related documents. Among them is a May 4, 2015, letter sent directly to the Metropolitan Police by Paul G. Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah who was then serving as Giuffre's attorney. The letter lays out, in precise and damning detail, the case for British jurisdiction. Giuffre had been transported to London by Epstein and Maxwell after two years of sexual abuse, during which, the letter states, the pair had "groomed her to perform sexual acts for their powerful friends."

Cassell included a copy of the now-infamous photograph showing Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around Giuffre's waist, Maxwell smiling beside them. He noted that the date on the photograph showed it had been developed on March 13, 2001, and that he had access to the original. Also enclosed was a first-person statement from Giuffre describing the abuse and naming others involved in the trafficking network.

"We were trying to think if there was a new opportunity to present Virginia's allegations to another authority with jurisdiction over them, and I came up with the idea that Scotland Yard would be appropriate," Cassell told the NYT, adding that "there was photographic evidence of her whereabouts in London and flight logs confirming that she had been trafficked from the U.S. into the U.K."

The Metropolitan Police replied to Cassell's letter "after an extended period of time" and conducted a video interview with Giuffre. In a statement this week, the force said that during its interviews with Giuffre and other potential Epstein victims, "no allegation of criminal conduct was made against any U.K.-based individual," and that Giuffre had described herself as "the victim of an international sex-trafficking offense." The police said they sought advice from British prosecutors and coordinated with U.S. authorities, ultimately concluding in November 2016 that "any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities outside the U.K. and perpetrators based overseas." On that basis, they decided to stand down.

The Metropolitan Police would not identify which U.S. authorities it believed were leading the investigation at the time. The FBI declined to comment. A memo released as part of the Epstein files shows that Drug Enforcement Administration agents were probing Epstein in 2015 for "illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities"—but that investigation did not result in charges against Epstein or anyone connected to him. The police revisited their original decision three more times—in 2019, 2021, and 2022—as new material emerged through the U.S. federal prosecutions of Epstein and Maxwell, as well as through civil proceedings and media interviews. Each review reached the same conclusion.

If you are being subjected to sexual assault, or know of anyone who is, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673)

If you know of any children who are being subjected to abuse, please contact The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 800-422-4453