Epstein sex-exploitation case won’t be reopened by police
The United Kingdom police said it won’t reopen a sex- exploitation investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, days after Prince Andrew sparked outrage with a TV interview about his friendship with the convicted sexoffender who died in a New York jail.
A human- traf ficking complaint was originally received by the Metropolitan Police in July 2015, concerning an individual brought to central London in March 2001. But the Met said Thursday that it wouldn’t be appropriate to investigate further because most of the case would be focused outside of the U.K.
Epstein, a fund manager worth hundreds of millions of dollars, had been charged with sex trafficking after a decade of allegations that he abused underage girls. He killed himself while he was left alone for almost eight hours overnight at the downtown Manhattan jail in August.
At the time of the initial complaint, police interviewed the accuser and assessed other evidence before declining to open a full criminal investigation. The Met said that they had shared the information with other law enforcement organizations but had not received a formal request to help investigate. The case has attracted attention in the U.K. because of Epstein’s friendship with Prince Andrew, a member of the British royal family.
Last week, the prince announced he would step down from royal duties following an interview he gave to the BBC. During the program, he faced questions about allegations made by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, who said she was forced into sexual encounters with the prince as a teenager.