British Police Defend Decision to Drop Investigation Into Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein in a July 2019 mugshot. Department of Justice via The Epoch Times

British police defended the decision to drop a probe into Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking minors in the United Kingdom.

Virginia Giuffre was pictured with Prince Andrew in 2001 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house in London. Giuffre has accused Prince Andrew of raping her when she was 17.

Taking to Twitter recently, Giuffre said Scotland Yard dropped the probe because it involved high levels of government.

“At first the Scotland Yard told me they were going to forensically examine GM’s house in London- next thing I hear, just like the FBI, they were not allowed to pursue the investigation. Corruption in the highelevels (sic) of gov,” she wrote.

But police said in a statement the investigation was dropped because it primarily involved figures outside of the UK.

“In July 2015 the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) confirmed it had received an allegation of non-recent trafficking for sexual exploitation. The allegation was made against a US national, Jeffrey Epstein, and a British woman. It related to events outside of the UK and an allegation of trafficking to central London in March 2001,” UK police said in a statement.

“The MPS always takes any allegations concerning sexual exploitation seriously. Officers assessed the available evidence, interviewed the complainant and obtained early investigative advice from the Crown Prosecution Service. Following the legal advice, it was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the UK. We therefore concluded that the MPS was not the appropriate authority to conduct enquiries in these circumstances and, in November 2016, a decision was made that this matter would not proceed to a full criminal investigation.”

The decision was reviewed after Epstein killed himself in his prison cell in New York City in August. Police said the review did not lead to any change.

“The MPS has liaised with other law enforcement organisations but has not received a formal request asking for assistance in connection with this allegation,” it added.

Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Giuffre, at Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in New Mexico in file photographs. U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida

Giuffre spoke to ABC about her claims in 2015 but the network “quashed“ the story under pressure. She recently spoke to BBC and a clip was posted online this week ahead of the Dec. 1 release of the full interview.

“It was a really scary time in my life,” Giuffre, who is now married, said. “He knows what happened, I know what happened. And there’s only one of us telling the truth.”

The interview was recorded before the prince had his own on-air interview, telling BBC that he had “no recollection” of meeting Giuffre. One date she named couldn’t be right, Prince Andrew said, because he was at home with his children.

“On that particular day that we now understand is the date which is the 10th of March, I was at home, I was with the children and I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose sort of 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon. And then because the duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other one is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy so therefore I was at home,” he said.

He also said that he has a medical problem preventing him from sweating, another aspect he said clashed with Giuffre’s account, and suggested the picture showing him smiling with his arm around her, with Maxwell in the background, might have been faked.

The prince announced a few days later that he was stepping back from public duties “for the foreseeable future.”