A former Conservative Home Secretary blocked the US authorities from questioning Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the Mirror can reveal.
Dame Priti Patel held the position in 2020 when the US Department of Justice officially requested Mountbatten-Windsor be “compelled” to answer questions over his relationship with Epstein. A “Request for Assistance” sent to the Home Office stated that FBI agents had documentary evidence suggesting the then-Duke of York had knowledge of the disgraced financier’s offending.
In the event that he declined to be interviewed voluntarily, the letter says, “US authorities request that UK authorities conduct a compelled interview of the witness under oath.”
The Daily Mirror can reveal that this did not happen after the request, made under the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT), was blocked by Ms Patel, now shadow foreign secretary.
Asked if she accepted it was her decision not to grant the request, a Tory spokesman said: “In any such matter, the steer from Government Legal Advisers will be crucial in how to respond. In the years since this matter was raised, further information about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has come to public attention.
“It is right that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor now faces the appropriate scrutiny from the authorities. Our thoughts remain with the victims of Epstein and his network.”
At the time of the request the FBI was investigating British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell over allegations she trafficked women for Epstein. The former US attorney who led the investigation has previously accused the UK authorities of shielding the ex-prince from his inquiry.
In 2022 Geoffrey Berman wrote: “Because of our very good relations with the UK and Scotland Yard, we almost always got what we asked when we put in an MLAT request. And I think they got the same from us. But that was not what happened with Prince Andrew. We got absolutely nowhere. Were they protecting him? I assume someone was.”
Under the mutual assistance treaty, each country can request cooperation to secure testimony from witnesses abroad, if necessary on a compulsory basis via a court order. It is understood that a specialist unit of Home Office civil servants was responsible for processing the request.
Following their recommendation, the final ruling is made by the Home Secretary. Details of the UK’s refusal to help the investigation come as the Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley this week visited the US in an attempt to get access to uncensored material from the Epstein files.
UK detectives believe it could hold potential evidence about Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson’s links to the American sex offender. Emails released earlier this year appear to show both men shared sensitive information with Epstein.
The former prince and the ex-Cabinet minister were both arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office following the release of the files. Both men have denied any wrongdoing. Officers are examining the material to see whether those exchanges crossed the line into criminality.
Detectives are also assessing sexual allegations from the files to decide whether any merit a fresh criminal inquiry. Before her death last year, Epstein’s “teen sex slave” Virginia Giuffre alleged she was trafficked by the billionaire financier to sleep with Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17. The former royal has repeatedly denied her claims.
Lawyer Radd Seiger told the Mirror that Ms Patel told him in January 2020 she would not allow the US to speak to Andrew if Anne Sacoolas was not sent to the UK over the death of Harry Dunn. Mr Seiger, who was representing Harry’s family, told the Mirror: “Ms Patel must have blocked the request [to interview Andrew]. I feel slightly guilty now as you can imagine.
“These two cases should never have been conflated and should stand on their own two feet. Andrew should go over to the US to assist the authorities with their inquiries. If he genuinely cares about the victims as he says he does he must go and help.
“Regardless of the law, these international cases are always about politics and that’s where people get a little bit confused. There’s so many vested interests involved that I don’t think the US authorities will be working that hard to help the Met Police. The DoJ is headed by Pam Bondi so I can’t imagine anything is going to happen quickly.”
Sacoolas, 42, later admitted death by careless driving. Harry, 19, died when his motorbike crashed into her car on the wrong side of the road outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in August 2019
Files published this year by the US DoJ also revealed email correspondence between Mounbatten-Windsor’s legal team and prosecutors in New York. They appeared to show that the former prince was reluctant to sit down for an interview as part of a US investigation into his former friend Maxwell and was only willing to provide a written statement. Maxwell was eventually jailed for 20 years for sex-trafficking in 2022.
The 2020 MLAT said that there was evidence that Prince Andrew engaged in “sexual conduct involving one of Epstein’s victims”. But it also emphasised that the former Duke was being treated as a witness rather than a suspect, adding: “[The] US authorities have not, to date, gathered evidence that he has committed any crime under US law.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “It is wholly inaccurate to suggest we do not comply with our legal obligations. We are committed to providing mutual legal assistance objectively and impartially across the world. Our thoughts remain with the victims of Epstein, who have lived with unimaginable trauma, and this government will do everything in its power to ensure accountability is delivered.”