‘Quiz Duke on Maxwell link’
POLICE should question the Duke of York over his links to Ghislaine Maxwell, says an ex-cop who exposed one of Britain’s worst abuse scandals.
Maggie Oliver told how she does not “believe for a single moment” that UK cops could not fully probe the 2016 complaint made by Virginia Giuffre following a 2001 incident in London.
Ms Giuffre, then 17, claims she was trafficked to the UK by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and forced to have sex with
Prince Andrew
– which he strenuously denies. Maggie, an ex-detective
Constable who helped expose the Rochdale child sex abuse ring, said:
“The fact he
(Andrew) hasn’t been interviewed under caution suggests to me special treatment.”
Maxwell was arrested in the US this week and has been charged with sex trafficking.
Maggie said: “I’ve listened to Virginia Roberts’ (Giuffre) interviews and I don’t believe that she wasn’t credible and didn’t have evidence to back up what she is saying.
“The establishment protects the establishment. At the very least, it’s coincidental. At the worst, it’s corruption at the highest level. When the authorities chose not to even investigate these crimes, the message goes out to victims that they don’t matter.
“In many respects, this is worse than the abuse itself.”
The Met Police dropped the case saying most of Virginia’s complaint related to alleged abuse in other countries.
But experts say there would have been legislation in place that made it a crime for a person to procure a girl under the age of 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a third party in any part of the world.
Lawyer Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “It’s a very serious allegation and there is no reason why the police shouldn’t investigate it.
“If a crime is committed in your jurisdiction and the complainer wants you to investigate it, the fact other allegations related to other jurisdictions is not a reason not to.”
Olivia Coffey, specialist child abuse solicitor with Bolt Burdon Kemp, said: “The Metropolitan Police appear to be simply leaving the criminal investigations up to the authorities in the US.” And referring to Epstein’s suicide in prison last year, she added: “You would hope that Prince Andrew would fully co-operate if there was an investigation and provide the police with as much information as he can.”
A source close to Prince Andrew maintained he had agreed to co-operate fully with US authorities. The source added: “Andrew has said he is innocent of any wrongdoing and nothing has changed.”
Audrey Strauss, acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said:
“We would welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk with us. We would like to have the benefit of his statement.”
The CPS and a spokesman for Andrew declined to comment last night.