POLICE SCOTLAND INVESTIGATES BALMORAL CLAIMS INVOLVING EPSTEIN

Police Scotland says it is making inquiries after receiving information concerning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire. The information is understood to concern claims that women were trafficked to the estate. “We have received information and active inquiries are ongoing, but these are at a very early stage,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said. The force said its inquiries were evidence led and declined to give further details.

Police Scotland appealed for information in February about a flight into Edinburgh Airport carrying Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell in September 2006. Flight logs released by the US Department of Justice record a journey from Luton to Edinburgh on 1 September that year. Evidence presented at Maxwell’s trial included a photograph of Epstein and Maxwell outside a log cabin on the Balmoral estate during a 1999 visit to Royal Deeside. The department also released an August 2001 email sent to Maxwell by someone identified as “A” at Balmoral. The sender asked: “Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”

A jury found Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking, and she is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Police arrested Mountbatten-Windsor on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations that he shared sensitive information with Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy. Officers interviewed him under caution and released him under investigation. Mountbatten-Windsor denies wrongdoing, and Police Scotland says it will put the needs of victim survivors at the heart of its inquiries.