Police are seeking unredacted files on Andrew and Mandelson from the US
A top police chief has told how the UK is looking into an alleged “wide spectrum of sexual allegations” linked to Jeffrey Epstein after he went to the US and is seeking unredacted files involving Andrew and Mandelson.
Officers are reviewing “a whole range of suggested sexual allegations” to determine whether any “merit a criminal investigation”, Sir Mark Rowley has said.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner confirmed he is requesting unredacted files from the US’ Department of Justice, which he warns could prove crucial if a case is to go against the ex-cabinet minister and the disgraced former Duke of York, reports The Mirror.
The news comes just weeks after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Peter Mandelson’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and as an image resurfaced showing the pair relaxing with the late convicted paedophile. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
Now, UK detectives believe key evidence remains locked inside millions of files held by US agencies investigating Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Speaking on US TV, Rowley said: “Of course, there’s a big body of that evidence … in the United States in all those files and at some stage we’re going to need the unredacted evidence. We need the original copy, and where it came from, and that’s going to be necessary if we get to the stage of court cases.”
The Met is in contact with the Department of Justice, despite repeated claims from US officials that there is nothing further to investigate stateside. But British detectives are taking a very different view.
Emails released earlier this year appear to show both Mountbatten Windsor and Mandelson shared sensitive information with Epstein during their time in high office. Investigators are now combing through the material to determine whether those exchanges crossed the line into criminality.
One message cited by Rowley suggests Mandelson discussed the timing of a financial bailout with Epstein during the European sovereign debt crisis – a revelation now under intense scrutiny. “It looks like it was shared with Epstein, so we’re looking at that as to whether that’s a criminal offence, and then colleagues in Thames Valley are looking at other documents that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor potentially shared,” he said.
Mandelson was arrested after investigators examined communications linked to his time as business secretary and trade envoy, with officers probing whether confidential government information was improperly disclosed. Mountbatten Windsor’s arrest followed a similar line of inquiry focusing on documents and contacts linked to Epstein.
Detectives are also assessing what Sir Mark described as “a whole range of suggested sexual allegations” to decide whether any merit a fresh criminal probe.
Before her death last year, Epstein’s ‘teen sex slave’ Virginia Giuffre alleged she was trafficked by the American paedophile to sleep with the former Duke of York when she was 17. The royal has repeatedly denied her claims.
Sir Mark told ABC News that previous interviews with Giuffre did not provide evidence that could be pursued in the UK. “With Virginia Guiffre, we did four of those interviews with her … and those interviews didn’t give us any evidence or any allegations of sexual offending or trafficking that we could investigate in the UK,” he said. “That’s why that investigation didn’t go forward.”
However, the decision to revisit aspects of the case marks a significant shift. He added: “Those investigations all go wherever the evidence takes them, quite comfortable with investigating sort of famous or powerful people. I think it’s really important for policing to do that, that sense of operating without fear or favour. The law applies equally to everyone, and those cases will go, say, wherever the evidence leads us to.”
The Met’s renewed push comes amid a concentrated drive on sexual and domestic abuse, with officers adopting more aggressive tactics to target dangerous offenders. “We’ve developed tactics to be much more proactive and target the most dangerous men who pose a threat to women and children, just like we do terrorists and organised crime. So, a combination of factors has seen the rates steadily coming down,” Sir Mark said.
“We’re making big progress and most of all, at the centre of all this that matters to me and matters to policing, is trust in the police’s building in London.”
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was later convicted of sex trafficking offences and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.


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